BACKGROUND:

The health care systems of low-income countries have severely limited capacity to treat surgical diseases and conditions. There is limited information about which hospital mortality outcomes are suitable metrics in these settings.

METHODS:

We did a 1-year observational cohort study of patient admissions to the Surgery and the Obstetrics and Gynecology departments and of newborns delivered at a Ugandan secondary referral hospital. We examined the proportion of deaths captured by standardized metrics of mortality.

RESULTS:

There were 17,015 admissions and 9612 deliveries. A total of 847 deaths were documented: 385 (45.5%) admission deaths and 462 (54.5%) perinatal deaths. Less than one-third of admission deaths occurred during or after an operation (n= 126/385, 32.7%). Trauma and maternal mortality combined with perioperative mortality produced 79.2%(n= 305/385) of admission deaths. Of 462 perinatal deaths, 412 (90.1%) were stillborn, and 50 (10.9%) were early neonatal deaths. The combined metrics of the trauma mortality rate, maternal mortality ratio, thirty-day perioperative mortality rate, and perinatal mortality rate captured 89.8%(n= 761/847) of all deaths documented at the hospital.

CONCLUSIONS:

The combination of perinatal, maternal, trauma, and perioperative mortality metrics captured most deaths documented at a Ugandan referral hospital.