A mortality review committee at Philadelphia-based University of Pennsylvania Health System reduced the mortality rate 33.88 percent, according to a study in The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety.
In 2006, the University of Pennsylvania Health System established an interdisciplinary Mortality Review Committee, which analyzed administrative data and charts to identify opportunities to improve care. From 2006 to 2012, the committee implemented several interventions that reduced the University HealthSystem Consortium mortality index from 1.08 to 0.53, with a reduction in observed mortality from 2.45 percent to 1.62 percent — a 33.88 percent decrease.
The committee's sepsis management interventions, implemented from 2007 to 2008, were associated with a reduction in the mortality index for sepsis from 2.45 to 0.88. The interventions were also linked to increases in severe sepsis survival (from 40 percent to 56 percent) and in septic shock survival (from 42 percent to 54 percent).
The committee's delirium management interventions, implemented from 2008 to 2009, were associated with an increase in the percentage of patients receiving timely intervention from 18 percent to 57 percent and a doubling of the percentage of patients discharged to home, according to the study.
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