T12_1_5_1

2011 National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports

The National Healthcare Quality Report (NHQR) is a comprehensive national overview of quality of health care in the United States. It is organized around four dimensions of quality of care: effectiveness, patient safety, timeliness, and patient centeredness.

Table 12_1_5.1
Postoperative sepsis per 1,000 elective-surgery admissions of length 4 or more days,^a age 18 and over,^b United States, 2008
Population group		Rate	SE
Total		14.6	0.1
Age	18-44	11.4	0.3
	45-64	12.1	0.2
	65 and over	17.5	0.2
	65-69	13.6	0.3
	70-74	15.8	0.4
	75-79	18.8	0.4
	80-84	21.2	0.5
	85 and over	24.5	0.7
Gender	Male	17.2	0.2
Gender	Female	12.5	0.1
Median income of patient's ZIP Code	First quartile (lowest income)	15.0	0.2
	Second quartile	14.3	0.2
	Third quartile	14.8	0.2
	Fourth quartile (highest income)	14.2	0.3
Location of patient residence	Large central metropolitan	16.3	0.2
	Large fringe metropolitan	14.1	0.3
	Medium metropolitan	16.0	0.3
	Small metropolitan	12.8	0.4
	Micropolitan	12.5	0.3
	Noncore	13.0	0.4
Expected payment source	Private insurance	13.8	0.2
	Medicare	14.9	0.2
	Medicaid	19.3	0.5
	Other insurance	13.1	0.7
	Uninsured/self-pay/no charge	9.1	0.8
Region of inpatient treatment	Northeast	15.2	0.3
	Midwest	12.5	0.2
	South	15.4	0.2
	West	15.6	0.3
Ownership/control of hospital	Private, not for profit	14.4	0.1
	Private, for profit	16.2	0.3
	Public	13.5	0.3
Teaching status of hospital	Teaching	14.9	0.2
Teaching status of hospital	Nonteaching	14.4	0.2
Location of hospital	Large central metropolitan	15.4	0.2
	Large fringe metropolitan	14.3	0.3
	Medium metropolitan	15.7	0.2
	Small metropolitan	12.9	0.4
	Micropolitan	10.9	0.4
	Noncore	9.2	1.1
Bed size of hospital	Less than 100	12.3	0.4
	100-299	14.8	0.2
	300-499	15.3	0.2
	500 or more	14.4	0.2

^a. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Patient Safety Indicators (PSI) software requires that the sepsis be reported as a secondary diagnosis (rather than the principal diagnosis), but unlike the AHRQ PSI software, the secondary diagnosis could be present on admission. In addition, the sepsis is not verifiable as following surgery. Consistent with the AHRQ PSI software, the following cases are excluded: admissions with a principal diagnosis of infection, admissions with cancer or in an immunocompromised state, and obstetric admissions. Rates prior to 2008 are not reported because of International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision coding changes.

^b. Rates are adjusted by age, gender, age-gender interactions, comorbidities, major diagnostic category (MDC), diagnosis-related group (DRG), and transfers into the hospital. When reporting is by age, the adjustment is by gender, comorbidities, MDC, DRG, and transfers into the hospital; when reporting is by gender, the adjustment is by age, comorbidities, MDC, DRG, and transfers into the hospital. The AHRQ PSI software was modified to not use the present on admission (POA) indicators (or estimates of the likelihood of POA for secondary diagnosis).

Key: SE: standard error.

Source: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Center for Delivery, Organization, and Markets, Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, Nationwide Inpatient Sample and AHRQ Quality Indicators, modified version 4.1.

Page last reviewed October 2014

Internet Citation: T12_1_5_1: 2011 National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports. October 2014. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://archive.ahrq.gov/research/findings/nhqrdr/nhqrdr11/12_patientsafety/T12_1_5_1.html