Assessing the outcome of stroke in Australia

Appropriate risk adjustment of stroke outcome data is needed for assessing and ensuring quality of care

Australia prides itself on providing high quality health care. But how is it measured? A common benchmark in hospitals is the outcome for patients as measured by routinely collected mortality data, with hospitals ranked according to their performance on this measure. However, “league tables” that rank hospitals by crude (unadjusted) mortality rates may not accurately reflect their processes and quality of care if the rates are not adjusted for other factors that can influence outcomes, such as casemix (Box).1-3