Hospitals in Southwest Georgia at, above average on Leapfrog scores

ALBANY — Hospitals in Southwest Georgia came out at, or above, average in the Leapfrog analysis released on Monday.

In all, 70 hospitals in Georgia were ranked on the Leapfrog-created Hospital Safety Score. Of those, 17 received an “A,” 16 received a “B,” 31 received a “C” and six received a “D.” There were no “F” marks in the group, which is scored in a ranking released in the spring and fall of every year.

Scores of “A” and “C” were prevalent among Southwest Georgia health systems. John D. Archbold Memorial Hospital in Thomasville received a “C,” as did the Albany hospitals Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital and Phoebe North.

Phoebe received an “A” ranking in the latest fall scores.

“There are well over 100 quality measures that various hospital grading organizations, such as Leapfrog, use to assign performance scores (or grades) to hospitals,” said Phoebe Chief Medical Officer Dr. Steve Kitchen. “Periodically, Leapfrog will change the quality measures they use to assign a Hospital Safety Score, which they elected to do between fall of 2015 and spring of 2016.

“The difference in the Hospital Safety Score for Phoebe largely reflects the change in the methodology used to assign the score. Five measures that were used in the fall calculations were dropped, and seven different measures were added for the spring calculation. The measures in the fall calculations that were dropped, known as core measures, were quality measures for which Phoebe scored very high — in the 99th percentile. The majority of the measures added, known as HCAHPS scores, measure patient satisfaction with regards to communication with various members of their health care team. Our scores were not as favorable on these communication measures.

“At Phoebe, we firmly believe that effective communication between patients and their health care team is a vital aspect of care delivery, and (we) have an unwavering commitment to continuous quality improvement across all spectrums of care. We have recently created and hired a new director of service excellence who will begin in June, with a laser focus on patient experience fostering open and transparent communication.”

Phoebe officials added that they now report surgical site infection rates at phoebehealth.com/quality for hysterectomies, colon procedures, coronary artery bypass procedures, spinal fusions, spinal decompressions and total hip and knee replacements. The information will be updated quarterly, they said.

“Archbold carefully monitors our internal quality data, along with results of all publicly reported rating systems like Leapfrog, to help identify areas we can improve,” said Archbold President and CEO Perry Mustian. “There are multiple rating systems available to help people understand how hospitals perform. Because each system uses different data sources, measures and scoring approaches along with different methods of display to illustrate the scores, assessments of hospital performance also differ.

“Over the past several years, Archbold hospitals have won several national and state awards for quality and patient safety, and we will remain focused on providing high-quality and safe patient care.”

Tift Regional Medical Center in Tifton received an “A” Leapfrog score, a score it achieved for the second consecutive survey period.

“This ‘A’ grade validates achievement in preventing harm within the hospital, and we are proud to recognize the efforts of our providers and staff,” said William T. Richardson, president/CEO of Tift Regional Health System. “They remain dedicated to fostering a safe, compassionate environment of care.”

Colquitt Regional Medical Center in Moultrie received an “A,” and Crisp Regional Hospital in Cordele received a “C.” South Georgia Medical Center in Valdosta got a “B,” according to the Leapfrog report.

The Leapfrog scores are meant to illustrate how well hospitals protect patients from preventable medical errors, injuries and infections within the hospital based on more than two dozen measures with publicly-available data. The Hospital Safety Score uses the measures to calculate a numerical score for all eligible U.S. hospitals, which is later converted into a letter grade.

Letter grades were assigned to more than 2,500 U.S. hospitals. Alongside the update, Leapfrog said it contracted with Johns Hopkins Medicine’s Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality on a new report estimating the number of avoidable deaths at hospitals in each grade level.

The analysis found that avoidable deaths remain high with a 9 percent greater risk of avoidable death in “B” hospitals, 35 percent greater in “C” hospitals and 50 percent greater in “D” and “F” hospitals than in “A” hospitals.

At the release of the figures Monday, it was announced that Georgia ranked 35th in the nation, and that 153 hospitals had earned the “Straight A” grade since 2013 designation. The latter calls attention to hospitals that have consistently received an “A” grade for safety in the last three years of Hospital Safety Scores.

On the “Straight A” list are Gordon Hospital in Calhoun and West Georgia Medical Center in LaGrange. At its state ranking, Georgia is just below Florida and a slot above Missouri.

The scores are accessible at hospitalsafetyscore.org.