RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Use of mortality within 30 days of a COPD hospitalisation as a measure of COPD care in UK hospitals JF Thorax JO Thorax FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and British Thoracic Society SP 968 OP 970 DO 10.1136/thoraxjnl-2012-202365 VO 68 IS 10 A1 P P Walker A1 E Thompson A1 H Crone A1 G Flatt A1 K Holton A1 S L Hill A1 M G Pearson YR 2013 UL http://thorax.bmj.com/content/68/10/968.abstract AB Mortality rate has been proposed as a metric of hospital chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) care in light of variation seen in national COPD audits. Using Hospital Episode Statistics (hospital ‘coding’) we examined 30-day mortality after COPD hospitalisation in 150 UK hospitals during 2006–2007 and 2007–2008. Mean and median 30-day mortalities were similar each year but the coefficient of variation was >20% and hospitals could change from a low or high quartile to the median by chance. We could not detect any reasons for hospitals being at the extremes. 30-day mortality after COPD hospitalisation is a complex variable and unlikely to be useful as a primary annual COPD metric.