Observations from Australia's National Surgical Mortality Audit

Australia is the only country with a national surgical mortality audit. Every Australian surgical mortality is independently and externally reviewed by another surgeon. Extensive educational feedback to surgeons and hospitals is provided through individual patient reviews, state and national symposia and reports, and the distribution of deidentified informative cases. This study reports a longitudinal analysis of the Australian surgical morality audit.

The standardised mortality ratio (SMR) was calculated for each state and territory, nine surgical specialties and nationally. The index year used was 2016, or every 5 years for those states with earlier data. Overall data were analysed in three groups-all deaths, postoperative deaths and non-operative deaths. Overall specialty data were analysed nationally.

There was a consistent progressive fall, usually in excess of 20%, in the SMR in each state and territory and by specialty when compared to the index year. This was statistically significant nationally (p = 0.044). The same change was observed in earlier years in states with longer-term data.

The period of this observational study has been associated with a nationwide fall in surgical mortality. As other improvements in care will have occurred during this period, the contribution that Australia's national mortality audit made towards the lower surgical mortality cannot be stated with certainty.