Hospital treating Scalise has poor safety rating in surveys
‘Infections are a pattern and a serious one,’ watchdog says
The Washington hospital where Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise was taken for his gunshot wounds last month has scored extremely low in safety ratings, including for infections — the complication for which the House majority whip is now being treated.
Medstar Washington Hospital Center scored a D in hospital safety ratings by Leapfrog Group and just two out of five stars in the ratings done by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Hospital Compare website.
Scalise underwent several surgeries last month after he was shot — along with two Capitol Police officers, a congressional aide and a lobbyist — during Republican lawmakers’ practice for a congressional baseball game. The gunman, James Hodgkinson, targeted the Republicans and was killed by the officers.
The bullet damaged Scalise’s bone, blood vessels and internal organs. Physician Jack Sava, the hospital’s director of trauma care, warned after the surgeries that there were still significant potential risks, including infection.
Scalise’s condition steadily improved from critical to serious to fair, but on Wednesday, hospital officials said he was moved back to the intensive care unit. He had another surgery Thursday for the management of infection and is back in serious condition.
At Washington Hospital Center, “infections are a pattern and a serious one,” Leapfrog Group CEO Leah Binder said. “They are significantly below the national average in four out of five areas that we have data, which suggests an inability to prevent infections.”
Binder said that’s particularly troubling for a place that is the “go-to hospital” for members of Congress and federal officials.
Scalise was brought to the hospital by a U.S. Park Police helicopter and didn’t go to other closer — and far better rated — area hospitals including MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.
Capitol Police spokeswoman Eva Malecki would not comment on why the hospital was chosen, as an investigation of the shooting is pending, and “we do not discuss how we carry out our protective responsibilities for Congress.”
There’s “no official designation of our hospital related to the care of Congressmen or federal officials,” Washington Hospital Center spokeswoman So Young Pak said in an email. But she noted it is a Level I trauma center — which means it is best equipped for the most serious injuries — and is designated as an adult burn center for the region.
The Georgetown hospital doesn’t have a trauma center but does have a helipad, and many other hospitals in the area regularly treat gunshot victims and have helipads.
Peter Pronovost, a Johns Hopkins Medicine critical care physician who regularly treats gunshot victims in Baltimore, said that with complex cases, some infections are “truly unavoidable.”
“It’s not just getting the complication; it’s how quickly the hospital identifies and treats it,” said Pronovost, who is leading a federally funded program to reduce complications after surgery in 700 hospitals. “A hospital that does well on infectious complications may have structured processes and a culture in place for elective surgical cases.”
Asked about the hospital’s poor ratings, Pak cited a study in the journal Health Affairs but misstated the study’s conclusion as being that health care is “too complex to boil down to a simple grading system.”
In fact, the study acknowledged that while some of the differences in hospital rating systems may be beneficial, it would be even better if the ratings organizations could agree on standards to report on their own ratings.
Matt Austin, who was lead author on the study, said his “hope is all hospitals use these ratings as an opportunity to reflect and identify the changes needed to make care safer for all patients.”
Leapfrog uses data from CMS, the American Hospital Association and its own surveys that it sends to hospitals. Washington Hospital Center declines to respond to Leapfrog’s surveys.