New hospital safety scores, which assign A, B, C, D and F letter grades to hospitals nationwide and provide a picture of patient safety in the U.S. health care system, were announced last week by The Leapfrog Group, a national patient safety watchdog. Mercy Regional Medical Center was one of only 844 hospitals in the nation and 14 in Colorado to receive an 'A' grade, ranking among the safest hospitals in the United States. This is the eighth consecutive 'A' grade Mercy has received since the spring of 2013.
"It's wonderful for Mercy to receive national recognition once again for being one of the safest hospitals in the United States," said Dr. Bill Plauth, Mercy's chief medical officer. "Mercy is actually among the four percent of hospitals in the nation to have received straight 'A's from Leapfrog since inception of their safety scores in 2013. This honor reflects our covenant of caring to ensure the safest environment as we care for those who are injured or ill. We're very proud of our physicians, allied health professionals, nurses, and staff who have developed and adopted error-prevention strategies while delivering excellent, compassionate care, consistently over time."
Developed under the guidance of Leapfrog's Blue Ribbon Expert Panel, the Hospital Safety Score uses 30 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign A, B, C, D, and F grades to more than 2,600 U.S. hospitals twice per year. It is calculated by patient safety experts, peer-reviewed, fully transparent and free to the public.
"Earning straight 'A's in the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is a remarkable achievement and testament to a hospital's ongoing vigilance and commitment to patient safety," said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. "We thank Mercy Regional for being an example of excellence in preventing harm to patients, and urge you to continue championing patient safety."
Leapfrog was formed to publicize publicly available data about hospitals nationwide.
"In some hospitals, patient safety is a top priority," the group's website states. "Strong health care teams reduce infection rates, put checks in place to prevent mistakes, and ensure strong lines of communication between hospital staff, patients, and families.
But some hospitals don't have teams that work well together, or good leadership to ensure that patient safety is the number one priority. When one person makes a mistake, there isn't a good team ready to catch that mistake. Patients can experience dangerous complications, recovery is slower, and some patients even die unnecessarily."
For example, an air or gas bubble in the blood (air embolism) is a serious medical error. An air or gas bubble stops blood from flowing through the body. This serious mistake can happen during surgery or other procedures. If blood flow is blocked, a patient can suffer a stroke or die.
"Many hospitals in this country have safety records that wouldn't be tolerated in any other industry," the website continued. The statistics are alarming:
As many as 440,000 people die every year from hospital errors, injuries, accidents, and infectionsEvery year, 1 out of every 25 patients develops an infection while in the hospital-an infection that didn't have to happen.A Medicare patient has a 1 in 4 chance of experiencing injury, harm or death when admitted to a hospitalToday alone, more than 1000 people will die because of a preventable hospital error"It's important to remember that most hospital errors can be prevented," the Leapfrog website state. "Hospitals need to work hard every day to protect their patients from errors, injuries, accidents, and infections."To see how hospitals' scores compares locally and nationally, visit the Hospital Safety Score website at www.hospitalsafetyscore.org.
