Friday November 24, 2006
What is Mortality Index?

One extra value which intensivist brings is his ability to improve core measures of quality improvement of ICU in particular and hospital in general. Out of those many core measures one is mortality index.

Mortality Index tracks "unexpected" mortalities based on how sick the patients are when they come to the hospital. (An unexpected mortality is one in which the patient did not come to the hospital with a fatal disease).

A score of "1.0" would equal the expected number of patient mortalities given the medical condition of the patients upon arrival. A number lower than 1.0 would indicate success and a number higher than 1.0 would indicate less success.

Mortality index get calculated on a risk score using a national sample. Usually a third party vendor has been hired by hospital who analyse data against data from hospitals nationally.

Keeping mortality Index below 1 should be one of the goal of intensivist team. So, your mortality rate may be high if you are working in an institution getting sicker patients but your mortality index may be low.