Dedication of physicians and frontline staff, along with a focus on improving quality of care, has meant dramatic improvements to the Hospital Standardized Mortality Ratio (HSMR) at The Scarborough Hospital (TSH). Our 2010-11 rate was the best in the city of Toronto, demonstrating a remarkable improvement over our historic results.

HSMR is considered a “big-dot” summary measure that is used to track a hospital’s mortality over time. The HSMR is a tool that allows hospitals to measure and monitor their progress in quality of care.

What is HSMR?

Hospital Standardized Mortality Ratio (HSMR) is a new measure of patient safety that compares a hospital’s mortality rate with the average Canadian rate. It examines observed versus expected deaths and is adjusted for various factors including age, sex, diagnoses and admission status of patients.

Adjusted for: 

• Age 
• Sex 
• Length of Stay 
• Admission Category 
• Diagnosis Group 
• Comorbidity (using Charleson Index) 
• Transfers 

An HSMR score of 100 indicates the number of actual deaths was equal to the number of expected deaths.

Why is it important for hospitals to track HSMR?

HSMR is one of a number of important quality and safety measures designed to improve patient care. In a tangible way, many hospitals use measures like HSMR to develop action plans to monitor performance improvement and reduce mortality rates. Some hospitals have used HSMR to identify coding issues within their organizations and have added the measure in their accountability frameworks or balanced scorecards.

View TSH’s HSMR rates.