Effective Care: Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Severity Adjusted Mortality Ratio  

 Why this measure is important:

The mortality ratio compares death rates between Rockford Memorial Hospital and the VPS reference group, after accounting for differences in how sick the children treated were.  The severity of illness adjustment considers such things as whether the child required a mechanical ventilator, whether the admission was an emergency, etc.  More severely ill children have a greater risk of dying during their PICU stay.

The system used by VPS to adjust mortality rates based on severity of illness is an example of new research supported by VPS participating hospitals and is still being validated.  Therefore, the results reported here should be interpreted with caution.  (Ask Dr. Deutsch if he has other comments on these results.)