Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital receives A from Leapfrog

ALBANY — The Leapfrog Group announced Wednesday the hospital safety scores for more than 2,500 hospitals across the nation, with the report showing a high score for Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital.

These scores are based on 28 national performance measures from multiple sources – the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Hospital Compare website, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Hospital Association’s annual survey. Taken together, these performance measures produce a single score representing a hospital’s overall performance in keeping patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors.

Phoebe received an “A” grade based on its quality and safety metrics for the Fall 2015 scores, which have been released on hospitalsafetyscore.org.

“We are proud of our ongoing work that resulted in an ‘A’ grade from the Leapfrog Group,” said Dr. Steve Kitchen, senior vice president and chief medical officer at Phoebe. “This score reflects a significant improvement in many of our quality and patient safety measures as a result of the commitment and efforts of many dedicated professionals throughout our organization. We realize that this is a continuous journey and will continue to vigorously pursue our quality improvement efforts.”

Some initiatives Phoebe officials say the hospital has implemented to improve quality and patient safety include:

— Implementation of dedicated performance improvement teams to monitor such measures as catheter associated urinary tract infections, central line associated blood stream infections, surgical site infections and other health care associated infections. Since then, officials said there has been a decline in the number of infections since these teams have been deployed, with all measures better than the national average.

— Implementation of the Leapfrog recommended high intensity staffing model which ensures all patients admitted to the intensive care unit are cared for by a trained critical care physician whose sole responsibility is caring for patients in the ICU.

— Participation in the American College of Surgeons’ national surgical quality improvement program known as NSQIP, which is recognized as the leading outcomes-based program for measuring and improving surgical care.

— Institution of leadership rounding where members of senior administration regularly make rounds on clinical areas to provide support to those on the “front lines” and ensure they have all the necessary resources to provide care.

— Reinforcing hand hygiene

— Formation of a Phoebe Putney Health System Patient Safety and Quality Committee, created with the goal of improving quality and patient safety and ultimately establishing a means for the hospital’s board to provide greater oversight and higher degrees of accountability for clinical performance.

— Creation of a transition of care initiative with a goal of streamlining processes both within the hospital and outside facilities to make patient care more efficient and patient centered. More than 60 people participated in the three-day event, including representatives from physician offices, nursing homes and other stakeholders. Several action teams were formed as a result of this project, and Phoebe officials said efforts are ongoing to further improve and refine these processes.

— Implementation of an antibiotic stewardship policy. It was adopted by the hospital’s Medical Executive Committee to enforce the appropriate use of powerful, broad-spectrum antibiotics. Indiscriminate or inappropriate use of these antibiotics has been shown to increase the likelihood of multi-drug resistant organisms and higher rates of health care associated infections, such as methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus and C. difficile.

“We will continue to focus on our ongoing quality and patient safety improvement initiatives,” Kitchen said. “There is no place for complacency, and we embrace the concept of continuous quality improvement, where our efforts are always directed towards finding opportunities to improve our processes and provide exceptional care to all patients. Rather than dwell on any particular grading score, our focus will continue to be on providing the best possible care for all we serve.”