St. Bernards Medical Center announced it had received the highest letter grade, “A,” from the independent nonprofit organization, The Leapfrog Group, based on safety measures practiced at the hospital.
These letter grades, known as Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades, range from the best grade “A” to the worst grade “F.” They look at publicly available measures of safety, including inpatient injuries, infections and medical and medication errors. In total, nearly 3,000 general acute-care hospitals nationwide participate in Leapfrog’s biannual findings.
Kasey Holder, M.D., St. Bernards Medical Center Vice President of Medical Affairs and Medical Director for Quality & Safety, said the “A” grade highlights St. Bernards’ commitment to the highest quality in patient safety.
“St. Bernards has always prioritized quality and safety processes as well as patient outcomes, but this honor reaffirms what we’ve done and plan to do to protect our patients,” Dr. Holder said. “We appreciate Leapfrog’s recognition of our efforts to prevent infections and eliminate preventable patient harm.”
St. Bernards Medical Center Administrator Michael Givens stressed how St. Bernards earned the “A” grade in the middle of expansion and the global COVID-19 pandemic.
“Even though we have the region’s largest hospital with 440 licensed beds and more than 2,700 employees, individual patient safety should never suffer because of scale or even because of a pandemic,” Givens said. “I’m proud how our team continually shows that St. Bernards can add new services and capabilities without compromising our most important duty as a healthcare provider.”
As quick background, Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades often receive recognition as the go-to standard for many national news outlets, using more than 30 national performance measures from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS), an internal survey and information from supplemental data sources. Leapfrog operates under the guidance of an Expert Panel for its scoring methodology, comprised of patient safety experts from Harvard, Penn, Stanford, UC-Davis, University Hospitals, Vanderbilt and the CDC.
For detailed hospital scores as well as information on The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade itself, visit https://hospitalsafetygrade.org.
