The Interior Health Authority doesn’t take issue with a recent study from Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) on its hospitals — but it has some questions about the findings.
Dr. Andy Hamilton, the IHA’s medical director for surgical services, said the CIHI study provides “valuable oversight” and noted the report states the information shouldn’t be used to compare hospitals, although he acknowledged that’s what many in the public will do.
Information used to compile the report on access, quality of care, patient safety and emerging health trends across the country comes from the hospitals themselves, Hamilton said, with 37 indicators included in the online report.
Royal Inland Hospital came out as average in terms of access (85.7 per cent), slightly better than the national (82.5 per cent) and B.C. (81.8 per cent) averages. The data used to generate the figure was hip-fracture surgery wait times.
In terms of safety, RIH was also ranked as average in terms of in-hospital sepsis incidents, at 3.6 per 1,000 patients. The provincial statistic was 4.7. The national statistic was 4.4
RIH ranked below average in a second data area of obstetric trauma with instrument, at 28.9 per cent. The provincial rate was 16 per cent and national was 18.9 per cent.
Hamilton said the rating was a concern and he’ll be working with IHA obstetricians to gain more information on this — if the trauma is the result of vaginal tears, for example.
RIH ranked below average in several categories of appropriateness and effectiveness of care, including percentage of patients re-admitted to hospital under various conditions — from medical to surgical and obstetric patients — but the B.C. rates were also below average.
For example, 9.5 per cent of all patients were re-admitted to hospital within a 30-day period, while the percentage was 9.4 for B.C.
Nationally, it was 8.8 per cent.
The lowest percentage, while still below average, was 2.5 per cent of obstetric patients, while the highest was 14.6 for medical patients. Those rates were within 0.1 of a percentage of the provincial figures.
Hamilton said more information is needed on this part of the report.
“It’s puzzling,” he said, “so we’ve asked for the raw data to look into it further. It could be someone with a new illness that is unrelated, for example, but it is still classified as a 30-day return.”
RIH ranked effective in terms of patients 19 and younger being re-admitted, with 3.6 per cent.
Provincially, the rate was 5.8 per cent. Nationally, it was 6.5 per cent.
RIH alas ranked favourably in hospital deaths per 100 following major surgery, at 1.4 deaths. The provincial statistic was 1.7 and the national was 1.8.
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