The Leapfrog Group recently released its spring 2021 grades on patient safety, and 24 Georgia hospitals got an “A.”
The Leapfrog Group is a national advocacy organization of employers and other purchasers focused on health care safety and quality. Its hospital safety grades — which twice a year assign an “A”-”F” to more than 2,700 general acute care hospitals in the U.S. — focuses on a hospital’s “ability to protect patients from preventable errors, accidents, injuries and infections,” the group stated in a press release.
“When we talk about patient safety, we’re really talking about how hospitals and other health care organizations protect their patients from errors, injuries, accidents, and infections,” the report states. “While many hospitals are good at keeping their patients safe, some hospitals aren’t. Upwards of 250,000 people die every year from preventable errors in hospitals.”
To determine each grade, Leapfrog used 27 national performance measures from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, its own hospital survey and information from other supplemental data sources. The methodology has been peer-reviewed and published in the Journal of Patient Safety.
Of the 76 Georgia hospitals receiving a grade, 24 got an “A,” 19 got a “B,” 30 got a “C,” and three were graded “D.” Hospitals are listed alphabetically by grade. Eight of the 24 “A” hospitals are part of the Piedmont system.
Hospitals with an “A” grade are:
Cartersville Medical Center in Cartersville
Coliseum Medical Centers in Macon
Coliseum Northside Hospital in Macon
Colquitt Regional Medical Center in Moultrie
Doctors Hospital of Augusta in Augusta
Emory St. Joseph’s Hospital in Atlanta
Fairview Park Hospital in Dublin
Memorial Satilla Health in Waycross
Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany
Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center in Athens
Piedmont Columbus Regional Northside in Columbus
Piedmont Fayette Hospital in Fayetteville
Piedmont Henry Hospital in Stockbridge
Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta
Piedmont Mountainside Hospital in Jasper
Piedmont Newnan Hospital in Newnan
Piedmont Newton Hospital in Covington
Redmond Regional Medical Center in Rome
St. Mary’s Sacred Heart Hospital in Lavonia
Tanner Medical Center of Carrollton in Carrolton
University Hospital in Augusta
Upson Regional Medical Center in Thomaston
Wellstar Douglas Hospital in Douglasville
Wellstar Paulding Hospital in Hiram
The performance measures serve as a proxy for the safety of care provided to COVID-19 patients in many ways. For example, Leapfrog wrote, a hospital with infection control procedures in place is better equipped to protect patients and health care workers.
“This pandemic emphasized how much we rely on America’s health care workforce,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of the Leapfrog Group. “Our straight ‘A’ hospitals remind us how preparedness protected their patients as well as their workforce and created a high level of organizational resilience. As we emerge from the pandemic, hospitals need to double down on safety, so they save lives, strengthen their organizations, and position themselves to withstand the next crisis. Putting safety first should be the priority of every hospital CEO.”
Across all states, highlights include:
- 33% of hospitals received an “A,” 24% received a “B,” 35% received a “C,” 7% received a “D,” and less than 1% received an “F”
- Five states with the highest percentages of “A” hospitals are Massachusetts, Idaho, Maine, Virginia and North Carolina
- There were no “A” hospitals in South Dakota or North Dakota
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