Mortality Rate - Pneumonia This is the mortality rate at a particular hospital for patients with pneumonia. Pneumonia is the inflammation of one or both lungs in which the alveoli (air sacs) fill with pus and other fluids. Pneumonia is frequently, but not always, due to infection. The infection may be bacterial, viral, fungal, or parasitic. Symptoms may include fever, chills, cough with sputum production, chest pain, and shortness of breath. This data has been risk adjusted. Risk adjustment is a process of accounting for differences in patient population based on many parameters such as age, sex, severity of illness, risk of mortality, and other attributes. Risk adjustment allows us to fairly compare hospitals across a wide range of healthcare measures. This measure of quality should be used in conjunction with other measures to gain a more complete understanding of the quality picture. Reference: [1] [4]

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