Evidence map›Paper›PMID 26856617›Full record

ArticleBMJ quality & safety2017

Quality gaps identified through mortality review.

Daniel M Kobewka, Carl van Walraven, Jeffrey Turnbull, James Worthington, Lisa Calder, Alan Forster

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in BMJ quality & safety, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
24citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

24 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Trial
  2. Poor nutrition status associated with low patient satisfaction six months into treatment for head and neck/esophageal cancer treatment: A prospective multicenter cohort study.Nutrition in clinical practice : official publication of the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition · 2025
    Article
  3. Family Interviews Improve Health Service Recommendations in Mortality Review Process: A Mixed-Methods Assessment.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2025
    Article
  4. Epidemiology of diagnostic errors in pediatric emergency departments using electronic triggers.Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine · 2025
    Article
  5. Article
  6. Development of an emergency department end of life care audit tool: A scoping review.International journal of nursing studies advances · 2023
    Article
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  12. Review
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Daniel M KobewkaDepartment of Medicine, The Ottawa Hospital, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Carl van WalravenDepartment of Medicine, The Ottawa Hospital, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Jeffrey TurnbullThe Ottawa Hospital, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
James WorthingtonThe Ottawa Hospital, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Lisa CalderDepartment of Epidemiology and Community Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Alan ForsterDepartment of Medicine, The Ottawa Hospital, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundHospital mortality rate is a common measure of healthcare quality. Morbidity and mortality meetings are common but there are few reports of hospital-wide mortality-review processes to provide understanding of quality-of-care problems associated with patient deaths.

objectiveTo describe the implementation and results from an institution-wide mortality-review process.

designA nurse and a physician independently reviewed every death that occurred at our multisite teaching institution over a 3-month period. Deaths judged by either reviewer to be unanticipated or to have any opportunity for improvement were reviewed by a multidisciplinary committee. We report characteristics of patients with unanticipated death or opportunity for improved care and summarise the opportunities for improved care.

resultsOver a 3-month period, we reviewed all 427 deaths in our hospital in detail; 33 deaths (7.7%) were deemed unanticipated and 100 (23.4%) were deemed to be associated with an opportunity for improvement. We identified 97 opportunities to improve care. The most common gap in care was: 'goals of care not discussed or the discussion was inadequate' (n=25 (25.8%)) and 'delay or failure to achieve a timely diagnosis' (n=8 (8.3%)). Patients who had opportunities for improvement had longer length of stay and a lower baseline predicted risk of death in hospital. Nurse and physician reviewers spent approximately 142 h reviewing cases outside of committee meetings.

conclusionsOur institution-wide mortality review found many quality gaps among decedents, in particular inadequate discussion of goals of care.

Indexed as

AgedAged, 80 and overCanadaFemaleHospital MortalityHospitals, TeachingHumansMaleMiddle AgedMulti-Institutional SystemsQuality of Health CareChart review methodologiesHealthcare quality improvementHospital medicineQuality measurement

Identifiers

PMID26856617
PMCPMC5284344

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.