Continuous improvement in public hospital surgical service
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The Hospital Authority (HA) spokesperson said today (November 30) that the preliminary results of the Surgical Outcomes Monitoring and Improvement Program (SOMIP) for 2018 showed continuous improvement in overall performance. The crude mortality rate of ultra-major and major surgical operations has persistently declined over the years and recorded a further decline to 1.2 per cent from 1.3 per cent last year. At the same time, the 30-day crude mortality rates of emergency surgeries dropped from 5 per cent to 4.4 per cent this year. The 30-day crude mortality rates of elective surgeries remained at the low level of 0.3 per cent.
"The SOMIP team is still validating and finalising the data for detailed analysis. While there is persistent improvement in the overall performance of public hospital surgical units, the SOMIP team will visit the hospitals which have improved to a lesser extent than their peers to apprehend the local situation with the department staff in the coming months. Multilevel analysis will also be conducted to reaffirm the findings and explore directions for improvement. The HA will follow up with the resources implication as indicated by the findings. Through the Annual Plan mechanism, the HA will support clusters and hospitals to implement the necessary improvement initiatives," the HA spokesperson said.
The preliminary findings in emergency surgeries this year indicated that, with reference to the expected performance, Queen Elizabeth Hospital continued to outperform other public hospitals in terms of post-operative 30-day mortality, while Caritas Medical Centre and North District Hospital compared unfavourably with other HA hospitals. In elective surgeries, Princess Margaret Hospital compared unfavourably with other HA hospitals in post-operative 30-day mortality. The SOMIP team will study the data and, in collaboration with the hospitals concerned, find improvement measures. North District Hospital has improved its manpower deployment and service arrangement. The New Territories East Hospital Cluster will continue to implement various measures to strengthen collaboration and mutual support between the three hospitals with surgical services within the Cluster.
The HA introduced the SOMIP in 2008 to collect and analyse the clinical data of 17 public hospital surgical departments for healthcare professionals' reference and follow up. The results will also be shared and discussed during the staff forum.
"With the dedicated efforts over the years, the overall surgical service standard of public hospitals is on a par with international benchmarks. In the years ahead, the HA will conduct longer term data collection and analysis, displacing the annual release of results. The team will focus its efforts on peer deliberation and data sharing to continue to improve the quality of surgical service in public hospitals," the spokesperson added.
Ends/Friday, November 30, 2018
Issued at HKT 18:50
Issued at HKT 18:50
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