Dr Foster Intelligence to amend HSMR risk models

Dr Foster Intelligence has announced a series of planned changes to its Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratio (HSMR) risk models in order to provide more accurate statistics.

Four methodological upgrades will be introduced by the Dr Foster Unit at Imperial College, including only using data from 2000-01 onwards due to its higher quality, while removing ethnicity from the case-mix model to avoid skewing results.

Other changes include improved Charlson weightings for interaction, while better adjustment for age will also be a priority.

According to the healthcare intelligence provider, these changes will allow it to provide a higher quality of data, from which users can gain more useful insights.

"These upgrades are fundamentally about improving the underlying models that compose the HSMR," the organisation said.

It comes after Dr Foster Intelligence concluded a consultation on its new Summary Hospital-Level Mortality Indicator and 2011 Hospital Guide last month, as it seeks to utilise user feedback to improve its services.