Deaths within 30 days of a hospital procedure or of an emergency admission to hospital

These mortality indicators provide information to help the National Health Service (NHS) monitor success in preventing potentially avoidable deaths following hospital treatment.

The National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD) have, over many years, consistently shown that some deaths are associated with shortcomings in health care. The NHS may be helped to prevent such potentially avoidable deaths by seeing comparative figures and learning lessons from the confidential enquiries, and from the experience of hospitals with low death rates.

The indicators presented measure mortality rates for patients, admitted for certain conditions or procedures, where death occurred either in hospital or within 30 days of the emergency admission or operative procedure.

There are five 'deaths within 30 days' indicators:

Operative procedures:

• Deaths within 30 days of a hospital procedure: surgery (non-elective admissions)

• Deaths within 30 days of a hospital procedure: coronary artery bypass graft

Emergency admissions:

• Deaths within 30 days of emergency admission to hospital: fractured proximal femur

• Deaths within 30 days of emergency admission to hospital: myocardial infarction

• Deaths within 30 days of emergency admission to hospital: stroke