Implementing the European Core Health Indicators (ECHI) in the Netherlands: an overview of data availability.

Background: The European Commission, together with the European Union (EU) Member States, developed a core set of indicators for monitoring public health in the EU, the European Core Health Indicators (ECHI) shortlist. From 2009 to 2012 developmental work on the ECHI indicators continued within the framework of the Joint Action for European Community Health Indicators and Monitoring (ECHIM). In this article, we give the current state of affairs on the availability of data for the ECHI indicators in the Netherlands and show what progress has been made over the past 5 years.

[Standardised in-hospital mortality decreasing over time].

Objective: To study the changes in standardised in-hospital mortality in the period 2005 to 2010.

Design: Retrospective, descriptive study.

Method: Data from the National Medical Registration (LMR) for the period 2005 to 2010 were used to calculate a time-series of the standardised in-hospital mortality rate.

Hospital stroke volume and case-fatality revisited.

Background: A few studies have found an inverse association between hospital patient volume and case-fatality among stroke patients. However, the different stroke categorizations used in these studies might have influenced the findings. Furthermore, the relevance of the association observed remains questionable given that the relatively small magnitude may not support volume-based referral policies.

Mortality after elective abdominal aortic aneurysm repair.

Objective: Purpose of this study is to provide detailed age- and gender-specific mortality risks of patients hospitalized for elective AAA repair.

Summary Background Data: Whether to perform elective abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) surgery is balancing the risks of natural history against the risks of surgical intervention. Literature is lacking mortality risks after elective AAA repair with stratification by both age and gender.

Mortality in Dutch hospitals: trends in time, place and cause of death after admission for myocardial infarction and stroke. An observational study.

Background: Patterns in time, place and cause of death can have an important impact on calculated hospital mortality rates. Objective is to quantify these patterns following myocardial infarction and stroke admissions in Dutch hospitals during the period 1996-2003, and to compare trends in the commonly used 30-day in-hospital mortality rates with other types of mortality rates which use more extensive follow-up in time and place of death.

Methods: Discharge data for all Dutch admissions for index conditions (1996-2003) were linked to the death certification registry.

Acute myocardial infarction incidence and hospital mortality: routinely collected national data versus linkage of national registers.

Background And Objective: To compare levels of and trends in incidence and hospital mortality of first acute myocardial infarction (AMI) based on routinely collected hospital morbidity data and on linked registers. Cases taken from routine hospital data are a mix of patients with recurrent and first events, and double counting occurs when cases are admitted for an event several times during 1 year. By linkage of registers, recurrent events and double counts can be excluded.

Short- and long-term prognosis after acute myocardial infarction in men versus women.

The prevailing view is that women have a higher early mortality after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) than men, but several studies have shown no differences. Further, long-term differences have not been addressed widely. The present study examined gender differences in short- and long-term prognoses after AMI in The Netherlands.