title: [A proposal for quality assessment through mortality data].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To introduce the Hospital Standardized Mortality Ratio (HSMR) as an alternative to assess the quality of hospital care in Mexico.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data-sets of public hospital discharges were used as source of information. The analyses were based in a logistic model to estimate the risk of hospital death adjusting by sex, age, length of stay and main diagnosis. The HSMR is estimated dividing the observed deaths by the addition of the risk for each discharge by hospital.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The ISSSTE had the lowest HSMR. At state level, the best figure was obtained by the hospitals of the ISSSTE in Veracruz, while the worst performance corresponds to hospitals of the SS in Nayarit.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggest that this indicator can be used as a suitable alternative to evaluate the performance of hospitals in terms of mortality.
authors.affiliation: Dirección General de Evaluación del Desempeño, Secretaría de Salud, México. puentes.esteban@gmail.com
authors.forename: Esteban
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Puentes-Rosas
authors.forename: Karina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rincón
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Garrido-Latorre
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008800:Mexico; D008875:Middle Aged; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D055815:Young Adult