How safe are central PA hospitals for patients? See latest grades from watchdog report

A national watchdog group recently scored some Central Pennsylvania hospitals below average for safety metrics, including death from serious treatable complications, infection and having enough specially trained doctors to care for patients in the intensive care unit.

The Leapfrog Group is a nonprofit organization that provides ratings and safety data for hospitals, and it recently released grades for nearly 3,000 short-term, acute care hospitals across the country. The organization updates grades twice each year, once in the spring and once in the fall.

“The goal is to help consumers protect themselves and their families from the errors, injuries, accidents or infections that they might experience during a hospital stay,” Alex Campione, program analyst for Leapfrog hospital safety grades, said in an interview with the Centre Daily Times.

The spring 2024 grades report a reversal of an “alarming trend” of increasing health careassociated infections across the U.S., which were at a six-year high for the fall 2023 ratings.

Those infections have now returned to pre-pandemic levels, Campione said, and another safety measure also improved nationally this spring.

Patient experience metrics, which assess quality of nurse communication, doctor communication, hospital staff responsiveness, communication about medicine and discharge information, significantly improved in the spring 2024 grades across the U.S., though they remain “far from pre-pandemic levels,” according to Leapfrog.

“I actually think the patient experience measures are the most important,” Campione said.

Patient experience metrics show first-hand whether patients are getting enough time to discuss concerns with their doctors and whether they’re experiencing any neglect, Campione added.

Out of five central Pennsylvania hospitals, one received a lower grade compared to the fall. Two local facilities received A grades, one received a B and two received Cs.

Leapfrog uses 22 metrics to evaluate a safety grade, including seven that are self-reported through the organization’s survey. Four local hospitals responded to Leapfrog’s survey, while one did not.

“The survey is an extensive process, it’s a commitment that hospitals have to make to complete the survey. It’s not short,” Campione said.

Three-fourths of hospitals that are graded complete Leapfrog’s survey, Campione continued.

Grades for the hospitals that don’t respond are calculated by using past data or a model that estimates how they might have performed if they did submit the survey. Federal, publicly reported data is available for all of the hospitals and is used in the grading, and selfreported data goes through a multi-layer verification process to ensure accuracy.

Here’s how State College area hospitals performed in Leapfrog’s grading, plus how to interpret ratings and which areas should be most heavily considered.

MOUNT NITTANY MEDICAL CENTER

Spring 2024 grade: C Fall 2023 grade: C Spring 2023: B Here are the areas in which Mount Nittany Medical Center scored below average this spring:

Death from serious treatable complications Doctors order medications through a computer

Safe medication administration Hand washing Effective leadership to prevent errors

“At Mount Nittany Health, we are committed to providing the highestquality care to every patient. Our team is highly trained, collaborative, and deeply passionate about their work. I’m proud of every team member for their role in ensuring that we meet the highest patient outcomes, and I’m pleased the Mount Nittany Medical Center has received statewide and national recognition that acknowledges those efforts,” Dr. Upendra Thaker, chief medical officer of Mount Nittany Medical Center and Medical Staff Services, wrote in an emailed statement.

“It’s noteworthy that Mount Nittany Medical Center has stellar rankings in outcomes measures—reflecting top results for patient safety, patient experience, and patient outcomes. This confirms our successes, which have been acknowledged with a fivestar CMS ranking for five consecutive years, the 2023 Excellence in Patient Safety award given by the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania, and inclusion in World’s Best Hospitals by Newsweek for four consecutive years,” Mount Nittany Health spokesperson Karen Wing said in an email to the Centre Daily Times.

GEISINGER LEWISTOWN HOSPITAL

Spring 2024 grade: A Fall 2023 grade: A Spring 2023: A Here are the areas in which Geisinger Lewistown Hospital scored below average this spring:

Infection in the blood Harmful events Dangerous bed sores Collapsed lung Scores were unavailable for surgical site infection after colon surgery and death from serious treatable complications. Unavailable scores do not denote a lack of safety.

“We celebrate each of our team members at Geisinger Lewistown Hospital and the safe and compassionate care they provide our patients every day,” Dr. Sabrina Sumner, chief medical officer at Geisinger Lewistown Hospital, said in an emailed statement. “Our patients are our family members, friends and neighbors, so providing the best care is personal for us.”

CONEMAUGH NASON MEDICAL CENTER

Spring 2024 grade: A Fall 2023 grade: A Spring 2023: B Conemaugh Nason Medical Center scored below average in one metric this spring:

Specially trained doctors care for intensive care unit patients (Conemaugh Nason Medical Center received a 5 out of 100, the lowest score given to any hospital.)

Scores were unavailable for MRSA infection, infection in the blood, infection in the urinary tract, surgical site infection after colon surgery and death from serious treatable complications. Unavailable scores do not denote a lack of safety.

“We are very pleased with this external validation of the high-quality, safe care we provide to our community,” Conemaugh Nason Medical Center CEO Tim Harclerode stated in a May 1 press release. “I would like to extend my personal gratitude to every member of our team from our nurses, clinical and ancillary staff to our physicians, board members, and volunteers for their ongoing commitment to quality care and patient safety.”

UPMC ALTOONA

Spring 2024 grade: B Fall 2023 grade: A Spring 2023: A Here are the areas in which UPMC Altoona scored below average this spring:

C. diff infection Death from serious treatable complications Accidental cuts and tears Dangerous blood clot Communication about medicines Communication with doctors Communication with nurses Responsiveness of hospital staff

“We appreciate the valuable feedback from Leapfrog on our services at UPMC Altoona, and we are using this opportunity to enact positive change. As we look to the future, we remain steadfast in our commitment to continuous improvement in patient safety, and the highest quality care for every patient we serve,” UPMC Altoona spokesperson Sarah Deist said in an emailed statement.

PENN HIGHLANDS HUNTINGDON

Spring 2024 grade: C Fall 2023 grade: C Spring 2023: C Here are the areas in which Penn Highlands Huntingdon scored below average this spring:

C. diff infection Doctors order medications through a computer

Safe medication administration Hand washing Communication about medicines Specially trained doctors care for ICU patients (Penn Highlands Huntingdon received a 5 out of 100, the lowest score given to any hospital.) Scores were unavailable for six metrics; unavailable scores do not denote a lack of safety. Penn Highlands Huntingdon officials declined to report metrics for “staff work together to prevent errors,” “effective leadership to prevent errors” and “nursing and bedside care for patients.”

“It is important to note that while Penn Highlands Huntingdon has participated with Leapfrog in the past, the hospital is not currently participating. Penn Highlands Huntingdon did not submit the Leapfrog survey questionnaire, which is likely the reason for the low score this period. Penn Highlands Healthcare submits all required quality and safety data to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and other like agencies. However, at this time, we chose to suspend data submission to optional agencies, such as Leapfrog.

“Penn Highlands Huntingdon consistently earns national distinctions for patient safety and quality. For the fourth consecutive year, Penn Highlands Huntingdon earned The Chartis Center for Rural Health Top 100 Rural and Community Hospital Award. This annual recognition program honors outstanding performance among the nation’s rural hospitals based on the results of the Chartis Rural Hospital Performance INDEX™,” Penn Highlands Huntingdon spokesperson Corinne Laboon wrote in an emailed statement.

HOW ARE HOSPITAL GRADES CALCULATED?

Safety grades are calculated using up to 22 national safety measures from the Leapfrog survey, U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and other data sources. The full methodology is available online and is peer-reviewed and published by the Journal of Patient Safety.

Grades are composed 50% by process and structural measures and 50% by outcome measures. The scoring scales differ by the chosen measure.

In the spring 2024 grades, 29.13% of hospitals nationwide received As, while 25.9% got Bs, 37.2% received Cs, 7.4% received Ds and less than 1% were given Fs.

Pennsylvania ranked 7th in the U.S. for the highest percentage of hospitals receiving A grades, with 42.7% of the commonwealth’s facilities receiving the highest grade.

HOW SHOULD YOU USE THESE SCORES?

Leapfrog emphasizes you should not refuse emergency care based on hospital ratings. The group intends the scores to be used when planning things like childbirth, surgery referrals or chronic illness treatment.

The areas you should pay most attention to when choosing a hospital include hand washing, infection in the blood and patient falls, Leapfrog’s website says.

Leapfrog’s hand washing grade measures how well hospitals use five “best practices,” including:

“Monitoring, including monitoring proper hand hygiene technique Feedback, including evaluation and use of compliance data Training and Education, including demonstrations of technique Infrastructure, including hand sanitizer dispensers Culture, including leadership buy-in” You should also consider how far off your hospital was from the average for any given standard. When evaluating a hospital, you can see the highest and lowest scores given, which helps in weighing a value. The “below average” category can include hospitals that scored 0.01 points under goal, along with facilities with the lowest possible score.

For hospitals that responded to Leapfrog’s survey, there’s often information available about which areas the hospital has improved in and which areas are not going in the right direction.

A hospital being ungraded does not denote a lack of safety. Ratings are often unavailable for facilities that decline to self-report, as well as smaller providers, children’s hospitals, surgical centers and critical access hospitals.

WHERE CAN YOU FIND MORE HOSPITAL RATINGS?

Leapfrog allows you to search for hospitals by name, location or state. There’s an online search tool where you can find information about more hospitals.