What was the gross (hospital) death rate at Happy Valley Hospital last year? Happy Valley Hospital discharged 6069 adults/children and 545 newborns last year. A total of 1 adults/children and 1279 newborns were seen in the emergency department. Information on deaths at Happy Valley last year is listed below.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

To calculate the gross (hospital) death rate, we need to divide the total number of deaths by the total number of discharges and emergency department visits, then multiply by 100. From the given information, we know that:

- 1 adult/child died (no information is given about newborn deaths)
- 6069 adults/children and 545 newborns were discharged
- 1279 newborns were seen in the emergency department

Therefore, the total number of discharges and emergency department visits was:

6069 + 545 + 1279 = 7893

To calculate the gross (hospital) death rate:

(1 adult/child death / 7893 total discharges and emergency department visits) x 100 = 0.01267 x 100 = 1.267%

However, the question specifically asks for the hospital death rate, which includes deaths among both adults/children and newborns. Since we only have information about adult/child deaths, we need to make an assumption about newborn deaths. One common assumption is that the mortality rate for newborns is higher than for adults/children, so we can estimate an average mortality rate that takes that into account. One way to do this is to weight the mortality rates by the proportion of discharges/emergency department visits that were adult/children vs newborns. Using this method, we get:

- Mortality rate for adults/children: 1 death / 6069 discharges = 0.01644 x 100 = 1.644%
- Mortality rate for newborns: (assumed to be higher) 1% (for example)
- Weighted average mortality rate: (6069/7893 x 1.644%) + (545/7893 x 1%) + (1279/7893 x 1%) = 0.0437 x 100 = 4.37%

However, the question asks for the gross (hospital) death rate, which includes deaths among all patients (adults/children and newborns) and does not take into account the proportion of each group. Since we don't have enough information to calculate this directly, the best option is to choose the closest answer choice, which is C) 5.5%.

What Was the Gross (Hospital) Death Rate at Happy Valley