The findings validate the Trust’s view that it has a strong record of patient safety delivery – which it maintained in the face of criticism following the same publication last year.
The annual data analysis shows that Weston General Hospital does have a very good record for monitoring its key patient safety indicators.
All hospital Trusts have Coding Departments where specific NHS codes are applied to procedures carried out in the hospital to monitor performance on safety and to ensure that the Trust receives its allotted income for each procedure.
Dr Foster’s Hospital Guide shows that Weston is a high coding trust on matters of patient safety, such as whether people suffer post-operative complications or accidental injuries. This enables external regulators to have assurance about our processes and record keeping.
The 2010 Guide also reveals Weston as one of those Trusts with a very low re-admission rate of patients who had been discharged from hospital within the previous 28 days.
This is one of the Government’s key outcome measures and those hospitals which do have high re-admission rates face financial penalties for this in future.
Finally, the Dr Foster exercise shows that the Mortality figures for the Trust are good compared to other Trusts, which is another indicator of our Patient safety philosophy.
The Trust is pleased to have taken part in the exercise and to have its performance reflected accurately, particularly because last year it scored more poorly on patient safety measures, due to technical issues in uploading accurate data for inclusion in the Hospital Guide.
Weston Area Health NHS Trust Chief Executive Lorene Read said: “We were pleased to take the opportunity to take part in the data collection exercise for this year’s Dr Foster Hospital Guide and we are particularly pleased that their assessment has revealed these favourable indicators.
“We have always said that we put Patient Safety at the top of our priorities and now here is some evidence which clearly shows us doing this.
“The position we took last year, in the face of critical comment, that we had a good track record on patient safety delivery, has been validated by this news today.
“We hope and trust that this information will continue to assure our local population that their hospital is a safe and welcoming place in which to receive care when they need it most.”
For further information, please contact Caroline Welch on 01934 647091
For further information on the Dr Foster Hospital Guide, go to http://www.drfosterhealth.co.uk