The NHS Information Centre has published the first national summary of work to link hospital data (HES) with death records from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
This now includes data on deaths that occur outside of hospital after a patient had been discharged, which alongside new data about deaths occurring in hospital, provides a bigger picture of hospital patient outcomes. Initial findings – covering inpatient records from April 2007 to August 2010 – show a greater percentage of patients die both in and outside of hospital after being treated in December, compared to any other month, with this peak most pronounced in December 2008.
