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These are the safest hospitals in Georgia, according to Leapfrog Group’s new report

Things to know about Piedmont Healthcare

According to Leapfrog Group's Spring 2019 Hospital Safety Grades, Piedmont Healthcare is the safest healthcare system in the state.

The group, which primarily uses national performance measures from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, gave several Piedmont hospitals an “A” grade in its recent report of 2,600 facilities.

» RELATED: Piedmont Healthcare achieves certification as 'Great Place to Work'

According to a company news release, Leapfrog's report is aimed at letting patients know how safe their neighborhood general acute care hospitals really are.

In conjunction with the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality, Leapfrog analysis determined that when compared to hospitals with an "A" grade, patients at "D' and "F" hospitals face a 92% greater risk of avoidable death. In fact, "if all hospitals had an avoidable death rate equivalent to 'A' hospitals, 50,000 lives would have been saved, versus 33,000 lives that would have been saved by 'A' level performance in 2016," according to Leapfrog.

» RELATED: This Piedmont ER nurse will walk the dog if that's what it takes

The Safety Grade includes 28 measures, all currently in use by national measurement and reporting programs. The measures, divided into two domains (process/structural and outcome measures), encompass a variety of safety factors, such as physician staffing, staff responsiveness, nurse and doctor communication, falls and trauma, and postoperative failure rate.

Twenty-seven of the 76 Georgia hospitals in Leapfrog's analysis received an "A" grade, including seven of Piedmont Healthcare's 11 facilities.

“We are proud of our record on quality, which our talented employees have worked hard to attain,” Piedmont president and CEO Kevin Brown said in a statement. “Quality, safety and service lie at the heart of Piedmont’s strategic vision of providing high-quality, patient-centered care and it is great to see us delivering on that.”

Five Georgia hospitals scored a “D” in Leapfrog’s ranking. They include: Habersham Medical Center (Demorest); John D. Archbold Memorial (Thomasville); Emory Hillandale (Lithonia); Atlanta Medical Center and Memorial Hospital and Manor in Bainbridge.

Here are all the Georgia hospitals that earned an “A” grade:

  • St. Joseph's Hospital (Savannah)
  • Memorial Satilla Health (Waycross)
  • Fairview Park Hospital (Dublin)
  • Tift Regional Medical Center (Tifton)
  • Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center (Athens)
  • Coliseum Medical Centers (Macon)
  • Colquitt Regional Medical Center (Moultrie)
  • Perry Hospital (Perry)
  • Piedmont Newton Hospital (Covington)
  • Eastside Medical Center (Snellville)
  • Union General Hospital (Blairsville)
  • Phoebe Sumter Medical Center (Americus)
  • Northside Forsyth Hospital (Cumming)
  • Emory University Hospital (Atlanta)
  • Emory St. Joseph's Hospital (Atlanta)
  • Northside Hospital (Atlanta)
  • Piedmont Hospital (Atlanta)
  • Piedmont Fayette Hospital (Fayetteville)
  • Piedmont Mountainside Hospital (Jasper)
  • Wellstar Douglas Hospital (Douglasville)
  • Piedmont Newnan Hospital (Newnan)
  • Wellstar Paulding Hospital (Hiram)
  • Cartersville Medical Center (Cartersville)
  • Piedmont Columbus Regional Northside (Columbus)
  • AdventHealth Gordon (Calhoun)
  • Tanner Medical Center of Carrollton (Carrollton)
  • Redmond Regional Medical Center (Rome)

Read more about the analysis at hospitalsafetygrade.org.

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