How Safe Is Your Hospital?

Check Your Hospital's Latest Safety Report Card

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade was launched in 2012 to help increase awareness of hospital errors, injuries, accidents and infections. Since 2012, the Leapfrog Group has been assigning A, B, C, D and F letter grades to more than 2,600 acute-care hospitals nationwide, twice a year.

#BREAKING: Nine Massachusetts hospitals receive 'C' grades for safety https://t.co/TikDE1gEAC via @BosBizJournal

— Lubin & Meyer PC (@LubinandMeyer) April 12, 2017

The score is based on the Leapfrog Hospital Survey along with national performance measures from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the American Hospital Association’s Annual Survey and Health Information Technology Supplement.

The Need to Focus on Injuries, Accidents and Infections

Often-cited industry statistics reported on the Leapfrog website drive home the need to focus on patient safety.

• Approximately 1,000 people die each day due to a preventable hospital error
• 1 in 25 patients develops an avoidable infection while in the hospital
• 1 in 4 Medicare patients will experience injury, harm or death when admitted to a hospital

Some of the most important measures according to the Leapfrog Group are listed here.

• Does your hospital have a hand washing policy?
• What is the rate of infection in the blood for ICU patients?
• Does hospital have patient safety training programs?
• Number of patient falls?

According to Leah Binder, president and CEO of Leapfrog:

“Our goal was to alert consumers to the hazards involved in a hospital stay and help them choose the safest option. We also hoped to galvanize hospitals to make safety the first priority day in and day out. So far, we’ve been pleased with the increase in public awareness and hospitals’ commitment to solving this terrible problem. But we need to accelerate the pace of change, because too many people are still getting harmed or killed.”

 

How Did Massachusetts Hospitals Score?

A recent Boston Business Journal article digs into the safety grades of Massachusetts' 60 acute-care hospitals.

"While half of all Massachusetts hospitals received an "A" for safety from a national nonprofit healthcare ratings agency, nine hospitals in the state received barely passing grades.”

You can read that article here: Nine Massachusetts hospitals receive 'C' grades for safety

How Did Your Hospital Score?

To search the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade database by hospital name, city or state, go to: http://www.hospitalsafetygrade.org/


Lubin & Meyer PC - New England's Leader in Medical Malpractice and Personal Injury Law. View our main website at LubinandMeyer.com 

Tracking Infection Control in U.S. Hospitals

The CDC’s Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAI) progress report reveals that while efforts to eliminate infections that commonly threaten hospital patients have shown improvements, more work is needed on infection control.

On any given day, approximately one in 25 U.S. patients contracts at least one infection during the course of their hospital care, demonstrating the critical need for improved infection control in U.S. healthcare facilities.

Tracking National Progress

On the national level, the report found a:

•  46 percent decrease in central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) between 2008 and 2013. A central line-associated bloodstream infection occurs when a tube is placed in a large vein and either not put in correctly or not kept clean, becoming a highway for germs to enter the body and cause deadly infections in the blood.
• 19 percent decrease in surgical site infections (SSI) related to the 10 select procedures tracked in the report between 2008 and 2013. When germs get into the surgical wound, patients can get a surgical site infection involving the skin, organs, or implanted material.
• 6 percent increase in catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) since 2009; although initial data from 2014 seem to indicate that these infections have started to decrease. When a urinary catheter is either not put in correctly, not kept clean, or left in a patient for too long, germs can travel through the catheter and infect the bladder and kidneys.
• 8 percent decrease in MRSA bloodstream infections between 2011 and 2013.

Research shows that when healthcare facilities, care teams, and individual doctors and nurses, are aware of infection control problems and take specific steps to prevent them, rates of targeted HAIs can decrease dramatically.

Massachusetts Hospital Acquired Infection Data

View Massachusetts fact sheet full size

Data from Massachusetts hospitals showed areas of concern in Catheter associated urinary tract infections and surgical site infections related to colon surgery.

To view the Massachusetts Progress Report data in detail, download the Massachusetts Fact Sheet.

See also:

HAIs and prevention activities in Massachusetts

Massachusetts validation efforts

Click here for New Hampshire HAI Data

Click here for Rhode Island HAI Data

The HAI Progress Report was published in January 2015 using 2013 data by the Centers for Disease Control.

View our main website at LubinandMeyer.com
Lubin & Meyer PC - New England's Leader in Medical Malpractice and Personal Injury Law. Attorneys practicing in MA, NH and RI.

Hospital Safety: The Shocking Truth

An infographic recently released by AcceleratedNursing.net reveals the startling statistics on patient safety in America.

Click here to view full infographic.

We previously cited The Journal of Patient Safety, which published a study reporting that as many as 440,000 people die each year from preventable medical errors in hospitals. In other words, 50 people die every hour from a preventable hospital error.

Among the causes of these preventable deaths:

• Falls
• 300,000 falls in medical units, especially among the elderly
• 82,000 of those falls leading to injury 

• Medication Errors 
• 7,000 deaths a year
• Contributing factors
• Communication errors
• Drug labeling errors
• Inadequate lighting
• Cluttered work space
• Distractions
• Fatigue

• Drug Resistant Illnesses
• Hospital Acquired Infection
• 25% of preventable deaths most commonly through
• Central line-associated bloodstream infections
• Catheter-associated urinary tract infections
• Surgical site infections
• Clostridium difficile (bacteria) infections

Click here to view full infographic in full size, and more information on sources.

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