Death rates provide information about important aspects of hospital care that affect patients’ outcomes—such as prevention of and response to complications, emphasis on patient safety, the timeliness of care.

About this measure

Mortality rate is the statistical measure of the number of people who die within a period of time. The chronic obstructive pulmonary disease mortality rate above is the percent of patients with COPD who died within 30 days of admission to the hospital.

In this case, a lower number is better.