Brigham Mortality Review Tool

The Brigham Mortality Review Tool was designed and implemented to provide a comprehensive, consistent review of all inpatient deaths by obtaining real-time feedback from bedside care team members. Preventable inpatient death is a leading cause of death with estimates of 100,000 to 400,000 patients per year affected nationally.

At Brigham and Women's Hospital, we are taking an innovative approach to addressing this major quality and safety issue by utilizing automated, electronic email notifications that are completed via the web and aggregated centrally to identify opportunities for care delivery improvements. We obtain information from clinicians regarding hospital-acquired infections, complications, delays, communication issues, and end-of-life. We ask whether a death was preventable, request suggestions for improvement, provide confidential peer support and notification about autopsy results, and encourage positive feedback about care team members who provided exemplary care.

Additional information may be found in the two British Medical Journal Quality and Safety (BMJQS) articles listed below:

• "Reflections on Implementing a Hospital-wide Provider-based Electronic Inpatient Morality Review System: Lessons Learnt." This recent BMJQS article that highlights our 7-year experience implementing a novel, comprehensive, and prospective mortality review tool can be found here.
• "Evaluating Inpatient Mortality: A New Electronic Review Process that Gathers Information from Front-line Providers." This BMJQS article can be found here.

The Brigham Mortality Review Tool is now being utilized across Mass General Brigham and it is licensable by other institutions. If you have interest in learning more about or licensing our tool, please contact Mallika Mendu, MD, at mmendu@bwh.harvard.edu.