Port Moody's Eagle Ridge Hospital has scored well, according to a new online tool that compares health care facilities across the country.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) website, which went live Sept. 18, allows individuals, hospitals, health regions and provinces to compare how they measure up on 37 indicators related to access, quality of care and patient safety.
And compared to other medium-sized hospitals across the country, ERH is "doing fairly well... with no statistical difference for in-hospital sepsis, re-admission rates or hospital deaths following major surgery," said Kira Leeb, director of health system performance for CIHI.
Eagle Ridge is also running more efficiently than similar-sized hospitals.
"Part of that is driven by the size of the hospital," Leeb said. "But from all I see... Eagle Ridge Hospital is performing quite well within its peer group and within the Fraser Health Authority."
In looking at data for the entire Fraser Health region, ERH was at the top of the pack for the cost of a hospital stay. It also had the lowest number of surgical patients re-admitted to hospital and the lowest number of deaths following major surgery. ERH ranked fourth in the region for in-hospital sepsis rates, with the top three being Burnaby Hospital, Delta Hospital and Chilliwack General.
Lakh Bagri, ERH's new executive director (he assumed the post earlier this month), said the report identified areas he intends to focus on, including hand washing and hygiene compliance, and reducing the amount of time patients stay in the hospital.
"The average length of stay is quite high, higher than expected compared to other hospitals," Bagri said. ERH patients stayed about 10 days in hospital, compared to about eight days at Burnaby and Peace Arch hospitals, nine days at Ridge Meadows Hospital and Health Centre at seven days at Langley Memorial Hospital.
"We will be doing concentrated work to understand that and to streamline care so as to use the beds we have better," Bagri said. "And like every other hospital, we continue to work on infection-control issues."
The site offers a wealth of information on individual hospitals, as well as trends for the region, province and country. Searching for the Fraser Health Authority, for instance, reveals population demographics, including the number of family doctors available, the prevalence of chronic diseases and more.
Leeb said that CIHI, which is funded by Health Canada and the provincial and territorial governments, and tasked with providing data to support health care policy and management, created the site to improve transparency in the health system.
"There's nothing like making information publicly available to make sure all eyes are focused on how the health care system is performing," she said.
BY THE NUMBERS
The CIHI website includes a number of measures ranking hospitals across the country. Below are some of the comparisons with Eagle Ridge Hospital in Port Moody.
In-hospital sepsis (per 1,000)
ERH: 3.5
Community/medium hospitals (across Canada): 3.2
Fraser Health Authority: 5.3
Medical patients re-admitted to hospital
ERH: 13.9%
Across Canada: 13.4%
Fraser Health Authority: 14.7%
Surgical patients re-admitted to hospital
ERH: 5.4%
Across Canada: 6.4%
Fraser Health Authority: 7.1%
Hospital deaths following major surgery (per 100)
ERH: 0.5
Across Canada: 1.7
Fraser Health Authority: 1.7
Efficiency (cost of standard hospital stay)
ERH: $3,799
Across Canada: $5,305
Fraser Health Authority: $5,000
