Northern Health is reassuring residents there is no concern surrounding the death rate following major surgery, despite the Canadian Institute for Health Information’s (CIHI) December report that said the health authority’s mortality rate is well above the provincial average.
In the 2021-2022 year, patients in Northern Health died within 30 days of a major surgery 3.3% of the time while the provincial average was 1.8%.
“When looking at a single data point, at our smaller rural and northern sites, smaller volumes alone can lead to pretty wild year-to-year fluctuations,” Eryn Collins, a Northern Health Spokesperson told My PG Now, explaining a small number of cases can have a large impact on a given year’s statistics.
“We tend to look for ongoing statistically significant trends because we do often see wider variation given the smaller numbers,” she said.
Collins said Northern Health’s internal information on post-surgical mortality for 2022-23 is already looking better than a year ago.
The deaths within 30 days of a major surgery also take into consideration all deaths in that timeframe, not just ones related to the surgery.
“Taken at one particular point in time, it does look concerning, but when you take it as a trend over time and keep in mind the smaller number of cases can swing those numbers quite widly, it is important to keep note of,” Collins said.
For the full CIHI report, click here.
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