Did your hospital make the grade?

Hospitals throughout the nation are receiving their report cards today as The Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit that advocates for safer health-care delivery, releases its second state-by-state Hospital Safety Scores.

In Central Florida, Orlando Health officials celebrated their straight A’s at four hospitals. Those same hospitals had received C’s on Leapfrog’s previous report card.

Florida Hospital, meanwhile, maintained B averages at seven of its Central Florida hospitals. Its Daytona Beach hospital received the region’s fifth Arating.

The report card assigns an A, B, C, DorFletter gradeto hospitals based on howwell they prevent errors, infections, injuries and medication mix-ups.

Leapfrog issued its first re-

port in June to help consumers decide whichhospitals to go to and which to avoid. The June report relied primarily on 2010 data, while the new report was based primarily on 2011 data.

“The latest scores show that U.S. hospitals are making progress, but many still have a long way to go to reliably deliver safe health care,” said Leah Binder, Leapfrog Group president and CEO.

Across the Sunshine State, hospitals raised their grades overall: 39 percent of the 156 hospitals graded received A’s, earning the state a 10th-place ranking in the nation. In the earlier report, 32 percent of Florida hospitals earned A’s.

Massachusetts had the highest percentage of A’s, with 83 percent of its hospitals getting a top mark.

In Central Florida, Orlando Health’s hospitals — Orlando Regional Medical Center, Dr. P. Phillips Hospital, Orlando Regional South Seminole Hospital and Health Central, which the hospital system acquired in April — all boosted their grade by two levels over their last marks.

“We expected we’d be a lot better,” said Dr. JamalHakim, Orlando Health’s chief of quality and transformation. “We were hoping for the grand slam, and we got it.”

Because Leapfrog doesn’t grade specialty or pediatric hospitals, Winnie Palmer Hospital for WomenandBabies, and Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, were not included in the survey.

Florida Hospital’s main campusin Orlando as well as its hospitals in Altamonte, Apopka, Celebration, east Orlando, Kissimmee and Winter Park all held steady with B’s.

“We performed well and know there are definitely still opportunities for us to improve,” said Lee Johnson, Florida Hospital’s vice president for performance improvement and safety. “We are working toward the Leapfrog standards. They are good indicators of where we should be heading, and

Video online

Staff writer Marni Jameson takes a closer look at Central Florida’s hospital grades: Orlando Sentinel.com we look at that every day.”

Of the more than 2,600 hospitals Leapfrog rated nationally, 790 earned A’s and 25 earned F’s. No Florida hospital received an F, although eight earned D’s.

180,000 deaths

Each year more than 180,000 Americans die as a result of preventable hospital errors, infections and injuries, Binder said. On average, one out of four hospital patients is harmed by a medical error.

Put another way, if medical mistakes were a disease, they would be the sixthleading cause of death in America — just behind accidents and ahead of Alzheimer’s, she said.

The Hospital Safety Score uses national performance measures from the Leapfrog Hospital Survey; the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; the Centers for Disease Control andPrevention; and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to produce a single score representing a hospital’s overall performanceinkeeping patients safe from preventable harm.

The report also pulled data from the American Hospital Association’s Annual Survey. Anine-member panel of hospital-safety ex-

Few local hospitals’ grades changed

These Central Florida hospitals were graded in both Leapfrog reports. Health analysts based the grades on 26 variables, including rates of infections, medication mix-ups, acquired injuries (including bedsores) and other sources of harm that can often be fatal. The newgrade reflects primarily data from 2011, while the older grade primarily reflects 2010 data.

Hospital perts from top institutions such as Harvard, Stanford andJohnsHopkins universities helped compile final scores.

Health analysts based grades on 26 variables, including rates of infections, medication mix-ups, acquired injuries (including bedsores) and other pre-

New

Old ventable — and often fatal — conditions.

Half of each hospital’s score is drawn from outcome data, or problems that patients actually experienced, such as a hospital-acquired infection or having foreign objects left in their bodies after surgery.

The other half captures

Better practices

One area where Orlando Health showed marked improvement was in its scores for hospital-acquired infections.

“We were really weak in that area across the board,” he said.

Among the more common hospital-acquired infections, which can be deadly, include urinarycatheter infections, pneumonia resulting from ventilators and wound infections after surgery.

To reduce the rates of those infections, he said, physicians have been selecting narrower-spectrum antibiotics that don’t kill good bacteria, which can fight off certain infections. The staff has also become more mindful of cleaning equipment, such as stethoscopes and monitors, between patients.

By simply not catheterizing as many patients, the hospital has cut its urinary catheter infection rate by more than half, Hakim said. “Often catheters are a convenience for the nursing staff, but they’re not better for the patient.”

Although safety affects every patient regardless of the reason for admission, it’s just one factor to consider, said Marcia Manning, cochair of Leapfrog’s hospitalsafety-score committee.

“Patients also need to assess the quality and outcome for the particular procedures they’re having done,” she said.

Hakim agrees. “Although we’re delighted by our grades, consumers shouldn’t read too much into them. A letter grade oversimplifies what the public ought to know. We’re still causing harm and have a lot of improvement on our agenda.”

Leapfrog hopes to issue a new set of scores every six months, Binder said.

Consumers who want a closer look at what’s behind their hospitals’ scores can visit hospitalsafetyscore .org.