One in four Georgia hospitals received an “A’’ grade in the latest patient safety ratings by the Leapfrog Group.
Georgia remained 34th among states for its percentage of hospitals getting an “A.”
Unusually, these latest Leapfrog ratings were published without an accompanying press release. The organization cited the public and media focus on COVID-19. The data in the ratings came from 2019 and earlier, before the virus hit the United States.
“Poor performance on safety is not correlated to the pandemic,’’ Leapfrog Group executive Erica Mobley said Monday.
Using 28 evidence-based measures of patient safety, The Leapfrog Group calculated a numerical score for all eligible hospitals in the nation. The numerical score was then converted into one of five letter grades. (A few categories of hospitals are not rated, such as small “critical access” and children’s hospitals.)
The data used in the ratings come primarily from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and also reflect information from the Leapfrog Hospital Survey for hospitals that participate.
Leapfrog, a patient safety organization founded by employers, issues the rankings semi-annually, in fall and spring. It’s a widely watched rating system and is promoted by hospitals that do well in the grades.
Georgia’s 19 “A” hospitals were a mix of urban, suburban, and smaller rural facilities. Among hospital systems in the state, Piedmont Healthcare had four top-grade facilities, HCA had four, and WellStar Health System had three.
Leapfrog says it has the nation’s only rating system focused entirely on patient safety, recording statistics on preventable errors, accidents, injuries, and infections that occur in hospitals.
No Georgia hospital received an “F.”
Among those getting an “A’’ was Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany, which has been flooded with COVID-19 patients since March, when the virus hit the southwest Georgia area hard.
Another was AdventHealth Gordon, in northwest Georgia. The hospital continued its straight “A’’ record since the Leapfrog ratings were launched in Spring 2012.
Here’s a link to the Georgia ratings.
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