COMPARING HOSPITAL PERINATAL-MORTALITY RATES - A QUALITY IMPROVEMENT INSTRUMENT

This article describes the development of a reliable measurement instr ument for the quality of perinatal care. The Hospital Perinatal Mortal ity Comparison (HPMC) predicts the expected perinatal mortality for in dividual hospitals, based on the perinatal mortality experienced in a group of similar newborns in a large reference population. Out of the 76 hospitals analyzed in 1990, 2 performed significantly better and 5 performed significantly worse than expected according to the logistic regression model. These results may lead to the identification of oppo rtunities for improving the process of medical care in these hospitals .