Of 69 hospitals in Georgia recently graded for safety, 11 core metro Atlanta hospitals received "C"s, according to a new analysis by The Leapfrog Group.
Leapfrog, a national nonprofit and watchdog group, publishes a biannual Hospital Safety Score which tracks and scores more than 2,500 hospitals nationwide on 28 different measures, drawing primarily from government data, resulting in a final converted letter grade of A-F. The score represents "a hospital’s overall performance in keeping patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors," according to Leapfrog.
Several of the hospitals told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution they "applauded" the score's focus on transparency and public empowerment — but they took issue with the score's narrow scope (which excluded some conventional measures of care) and with the data involved, which in some cases was from 2011.
Several of the hospitals told the AJC that more current data reflected improvement and showed them at or above national benchmarks.
Here are the 11 core metro Atlanta hospitals that received Cs in the fall 2015 grades (no core metro hospitals received Ds or Fs), and their scores on the individual measures:
• Atlanta Medical Center (Atlanta): See the score; Atlanta Medical Center South Campus (East Point): See the score
Hospital response: "We have identified areas where we have fallen short of our high standards, and through hospital-based initiatives, we are actively reviewing key indicators of care and implementing action plans to drive improvements."
• DeKalb Medical Center (Decatur): See the score
Hospital response: The AJC has been in contact with the medical center about its score, but has not received a comment.
• Emory Healthcare: Emory Johns Creek Hospital (Johns Creek) See the score; Emory University Hospital Midtown (Atlanta) See the score; St. Joseph's Hospital of Atlanta (Atlanta) See the score.
Hospital response: "While the evidence is clear that these ranking systems are not yet meaningfully useful for comparing and ranking individual hospitals, we carefully review such data internally to ensure that we are always focusing our efforts on the most fruitful areas to maintain the highest levels of quality and safety for our patients."
• Grady Memorial Hospital (Atlanta): See the score
Hospital response: "Grady’s commitment to providing safe, high-quality care is at the core of everything we do. And while there are opportunities for improvement, the latest hospital safety report issued by Leapfrog does not reflect the great strides the health system has made to ensure that our patients receive the best care possible."
• Gwinnett Medical Center Duluth (Duluth): See the score; Gwinnett Medical Center Lawrenceville (Lawrenceville): See the score
Hospital response: "Safety is our highest priority and most important core value at Gwinnett Medical Center (GMC) in Duluth and Lawrenceville. Furthermore, we applaud the efforts of Leapfrog encouraging transparency in healthcare. ... Currently, GMC is engaged in a number of system-wide programs that promote safe behaviors."
• Piedmont Hospital (Atlanta): See the score
Hospital response: "The thing we had last year at (Piedmont) Atlanta, with a D, spurred us into action," Dr. Leigh Hamby, Piedmont's chief medical officer, said, adding, "We've been actively managing the measures that Leapfrong('s score) is made of pretty aggressively." Changes include improving documentation and staffing the ICU 24/7 with allied health professionals, Hamby said.
• Rockdale Medical Center (Conyers): See the score
Hospital response: "Rockdale Medical Center is committed to providing high-quality and safe patient care. We value the information that public reports and ranking systems provide ... We are pursuing many quality care and patient safety initiatives including enhanced education for staff, implementing evidence-based best practices, executive rounding and participation in infection prevention programs."
Methodology of the scores
Leapfrog grades hospitals in two broad categories: how and where a hospital gives treatment, and what happens after — including rates of inpatient injuries and infections, and medical errors.
Leapfrog uses the most recent publicly available data from the federal government’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), among other sources including its voluntary survey. Ten of the score's measures use data reported during 2014, while four of them use data reported from July 1, 2011, to June 30, 2013.
"We are fairly confident in our data because we know that it takes time to improve on these things, so we don't see a lot of changes that happen overnight," said Missy Danforth, Leapfrog's vice president for hospital ratings.
The CMS released new data in late October, days before the fall 2015 scores were released, but Leapfrog did not recalculate at that late a date, Danforth said.
