Cambridge Dr Foster’s Trust of the Year

Dr Foster has named Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust as its ‘Trust of the Year’ with lower than expected rates on two of four mortality measures.

The Dr Foster Hospital guide 2012 has also identified 12 trusts with higher-than-expected death rates on two of four mortality indicators.

The guide, published today, took into account four ways of measuring mortality. They are: the hospital standardised mortality ratio, which measures deaths while in hospital; the summary hospital-level mortality indicator, which takes into account deaths both in and out of hospital; deaths after surgery; and deaths from conditions that patients would normally survive.

Cambridge had lower than expected rates on two of the four mortality measures and no concerns on the other two.

However, the trust also hit the headlines recently when foundation trust regulator Monitor found it to be in ‘significant breach’ of its terms of authorisation. This was due to successive failure to meet several healthcare targets including waiting time for cancer treatments and A&E performance.

Monitor was concerned about the “multiple occurrences of preventable patient safety incidents and poor financial performance” at the trust.

The regulator’s concerns about the trust’s finances mean it is yet to sign a major contract for a new electronic patient record system with US-supplier Epic.

Cambridge medical director, Dr Jag Ahluwalia, said Dr Foster’s analysis shows that more patients are surviving than would be expected, that they are less likely to be readmitted and that the processes for treating patients are efficient.

“We know there are areas where we must achieve better results, such as making sure we have shorter waiting times and ensuring that patient safety is paramount,” said Dr Ahluwalia.

“Our outcomes are good, but our patients are waiting too long. We are working on getting to grips with this.”

Honorable mention was also awarded to Frimley Park Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, which recently became the first trust to go live with TPP’s suite of new hospital functionality.