Eleven hospitals have failed to publish their mortality rates by health minister Edith Schipper’s deadline, according to research by the NRC.

The country’s biggest hospital, the Erasmus University medical centre, said last week it would not publish its figures because they cannot be used to compare hospital performance.

Schippers believes publication will help patients decide where to go for treatment and improve transparency.

HSMR

In total, 77 hospitals have complied with the minister’s request to publish their mortality rates online, the NRC’s research shows. They have been asked to publish both an HSMR score (Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratio) and a score per diagnostic group.

The figures should be calculated by taking the age, sex, urgency, ethnic origin and economic background of the patient into account. 100 is the standard score.

Of the HSMRs published so far, the Amstelland hospital in Amstelveen scored worst, with 123. The Martini hospital in Groningen is best with a score of 62, the NRC says.

The Amstelland figure has been skewed because unlike many hospitals, it treats patients until they die, rather than sending them to a hospice, the paper says.