NEWS RELEASE

November 29, 2007

ATTENTION: NEWS / HEALTH EDITORS

Trillium Health Centre responds to CIHI release of HSMR data

Mississauga/West Toronto - The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) today released, for the first time in Canada, Hospital Standardized Mortality Ratio (HSMR) reports on trends for Canadian acute care hospitals over the last three years.

HSMR is a new measure of patient outcomes used by hospitals in several countries throughout the world as part of efforts to improve the quality of patient care. Trillium participated in the CIHI HSMR voluntary study because it is a strong statistical indicator of high-level trends. The report will help us identify areas requiring improvement and to evaluate how we are doing in comparison to our peers across Canada.

The CIHI report compares the actual number of deaths in a hospital or health region with the overall Canadian experience, after adjusting for various factors that affect in-hospital mortality, such as the age, sex, transfers, diagnoses and admission status of patients. HSMR measures the ratio of actual to expected deaths in acute care hospitals.

"Statistical indicators like the HSMR trend reports are useful in establishing benchmarks for further analysis of the impact of our patient safety initiatives over time," said Janet Davidson, O.C. Trillium’s president and CEO. "Many indicators are needed to get a sense of how our health centre is performing - where we excel and where improvements could be made - as we strive to transform the health care experience by providing our patients with the highest levels of safety."

Trillium compares favourably with the other hospitals in the Mississauga Halton LHIN and in our peer group across Canada (Category 3 - large, community, non-teaching hospitals). However, we are one of the few community hospitals with several regional programs such as cardiac, stroke, and neurosurgery. As a result, we care for patients with higher acuity levels.

Trillium Health Centre HSMR

              Excluding Palliative Care                      All Cases - including PC
2004-05:              99                                                       102
2005-06:              95                                                        97
2006-07:            102                                                       105
Overall:               99                                                       102

Mississauga-Halton LHIN HSMR

              Excluding Palliative Care                     All Cases - including PC
2004-05:             98                                                     102
2005-06:             95                                                      99
2006-07:             98                                                     104
Overall:               97                                                     101

Notes to tables:
* Mississauga-Halton LHIN Includes Trillium, Credit Valley Hospital, Halton Healthcare Services (Georgetown, Milton, Oakville-Trafalgar sites), William Osler Health Centre - Georgetown.

* HSMR equal to 100 means there is no difference between a hospital's mortality rate and the overall average experience of patients in Canada

"Trillium sees the HSMR study as a way to help us better understand trends in our mortality rates and to use them as one tool in assessing the patient safety strategies we have been implementing since 2003," said Patti Cochrane, Trillium's vice president of Patient Services. “We will always look for ways to make our patients safer, and seeking constructive third-party feedback is one of those ways.”

Trillium's HSMR report reaffirms the positive independent feedback we received earlier this year by the Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation, the National Quality Institute and through the CIHI, OHA and Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care’s release of Hospital Reports.

The full report is available electronically from CIHI at www.cihi.ca.

About Trillium Health Centre

Trillium Health Centre is one of Canada’s largest community hospitals with regional programs in cardiac, stroke, neurosurgery, orthopaedic, and sexual assault and domestic violence services. Housing a model ambulatory care centre and the largest free standing day surgery centre in North America, Trillium serves over one million residents in Peel and West Toronto and from other communities across Ontario. With the continued support of the Trillium Health Centre Foundation, the hospital’s fundraising arm, the two-site facility is attracting international attention for its innovative approach to providing health care services and has received numerous national awards for quality and innovation.

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Media Contact:
Larry Roberts
Media Relations Consultant
Trillium Health Centre
office: 905-848-7580 ext. 3832
mobile: 416-358-7201
lroberts@thc.on.ca

Media Contacts

For all media enquiries, please call Public Relations at 905-848-7580 ext. 3832.