Patient Safety Indicators

The HSMR is the ratio of actual number of deaths to the expected number of deaths among hospitalized patients. The HSMR is a measure that reflects the number of deaths observed in a hospital relative to what would be expected, based on the average Canadian experience.

An HSMR equal to 100 suggests that there is no difference between a local mortality rate and the average national experience, given the types of patients cared for. An HSMR less than 100 suggests that a local mortality rate is lower than the national experience.

Click here to learn more about the Hospital Standardized Mortality Ratio from the Canadian Institute for Health Information.