Area hospitals above average in Leapfrog rating
All four of Northwest Georgia’s major medical centers rated above average in the spring 2017 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades report.
Floyd Medical Center improved its rating to a B from the C awarded in The Leapfrog Group’s fall report. Redmond Regional and Cartersville medical centers each received an A for the second assessment in a row.
Gordon Hospital earned another A, making it one of just 63 hospitals in the nation to get all As since the nonprofit watchdog began issuing reports in 2012.
“Straight A hospitals are a rare breed,” said Leah Binder, Leapfrog’s president and CEO. “Not only do they achieve the highest national standards for safety, but they consistently maintain that level of excellence.”
The report uses 30 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign letter grades twice a year to more than 2,600 hospitals in the United States. Polk Medical Center is not large enough to be included.
Statewide, 13 hospitals were awarded an A, 20 earned a B and 36 received a C. No Georgia hospital received an F, but D grades went to Augusta University Medical Center, Rockdale MC, DeKalb MC at Hillandale, Grady Memorial Hospital and Emory University Hospital Midtown.
Floyd Medical Center
Dr. Joseph Biuso, executive vice president and chief medical officer at FMC, noted that the nonprofit public hospital has received top marks in safety from another organization, Healthgrades, four years in a row.
“Every day at Floyd begins with a safety huddle and ends with an analysis of how we did in our pursuit of excellent care,” he said.
One of measures in which the hospital ranked below average was patient falls — an area in which Gordon Hospital received an even lower score. The evening huddle includes a review of every fall that took place during the day. It led to the installation of alarms on each bed, “so we’re notified if a patient gets up,” Biuso said.
FMC also was downgraded for the rate of surgical site infection after colon surgery, as were the three other rated hospitals in the region, and for the lack of enough specially trained doctors in the ICU. The scarcity of intensivists trained in critical care makes that a difficult measure to address, FMC spokesman Dan Bevels said.
“We’re pulling from the same pool of doctors as Redmond and other hospitals. We’re all in the same situation,” he said.
FMC also did not report data dealing with staffing and management procedures
the hospital has in place to protect patients from errors. That left eight of the report’s 30 measures without scores.
Bevels said Leapfrog is one of a number of voluntary surveys and the hospital has limited resources to devote to questionnaires. However, officials have decided to participate fully in this one and are in the process of providing the data, he said.
Among the areas FMC netted above-average scores were responsiveness of hospital staff to patients, low incidence of bedsores and surgical safety.
Redmond Regional Medical Center
Redmond — which received As in six of the last seven assessments — also fell below the national average in the availability of ICU intensivists and in the rate of infection after colon surgery.
Measures on MRSA infections and deaths from treatable serious complications also were below average in the Leapfrog ratings.
Hospital spokeswoman Andrea Pitts said there are ongoing initiatives aimed at enhancing patient care.
“Some of these initiatives include daily rounds by a multi-disciplinary team in our Intensive Care Units, as well as twice-weekly rounds with physician intensivists in our ICUs,” she said.
The hospital also offers a pre-operative education clinic to all patients having elective surgery, Pitts said. Part of that focuses on the use of chlorohexidine baths, which reduce bacteria found on all skin, antibiotic management and hand-washing.
The hospital netted top marks in most categories, including six of the seven measures dealing with surgery safety and all of the general patient-safety measures.
“Across our surgical disciplines, we follow (Centers for Disease Control) guidelines and share best practices with our HCA affiliate colleagues,” Pitts said.
Cartersville Medical Center
Redmond Regional and CMC are both affiliates of HCA, the for-profit Hospital Corporation of America.
CMC was the only hospital in the region where the number of ICU intensivists on staff was deemed above average. Like the other three, it ranked below average in preventing infection after colon surgery. Infection in the blood and urinary tract during ICU stays also were cited as issues.
Hospital spokeswoman Ginger Tyra said CMC recently purchased an ultraviolet-light robot to clean the ICU rooms, surgical suites and contact isolation rooms.
“At Cartersville Medical Center, patient safety and quality care are our top priorities,” she said.
Tyra also noted the use of chlorohexidine baths and antibiotic management to reduce the potential for surgical site infections, and she said the hospital also tries to reduce the use of medical devices such as ventilators — when possible — to minimize the risk of infection.
Gordon Hospital
Gordon Hospital in Calhoun is part of the Adventist Health System, a faith-based organization with 45 facilities in nine states. Its only other facility in Georgia, Murray Medical Center in Chatsworth, is too small to be included in the ratings.
Gordon Hospital ranked above average in all but five of the measures used in The Leapfrog Group report: the number of ICU intensivists, patient falls and several rates of infection, including after colon surgery.
It also scored below average in practices related to MRSA and C. diff bacterial infections. The report states that best practices include frequent thorough cleanings of hospital rooms and equipment and isolating patients who have an infection.
In addition to hospital surveys, The Leapfrog Group pulls data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.