Five hospitals in Columbia and Lexington score ‘A’ grades in latest safety report card

Five Columbia-area hospitals received the highest mark possible in the safety grades released by a medical watchdog group Wednesday. Overall, most Midlands medical facilities saw their ratings improve since the last scores were released in the fall.

Lexington Medical Center earned another A grade in the report from the Leapfrog Group, which issues biannual safety rankings. This time it was joined by more hospitals in Columbia, which can be considered among the safest in South Carolina.

Since 2012, the Leapfrog Group has published Hospital Safety Scores twice a year — once in the spring and once during the fall — to create transparency in the U.S. health system. The rating is focused on “errors, accidents, injuries and infections.”

Based on this criteria, other Columbia hospitals received four A grades and one C for the spring. Those include:

▪ Prisma Health Baptist Parkridge’s grade rose one letter from B in the fall ranking to A

▪ Prisma Health Baptist’s grade rose one letter from B in the fall ranking to A

▪ MUSC Health Columbia Medical Center Downtown’s grade rose one letter from B in the fall ranking to A. The hospital was formerly Providence Health.

▪ MUSC Health Columbia Medical Center Northeast’s grade rose one letter from B in the fall ranking to A. The facility was formerly Providence Health Northeast.

▪ Prisma Health Richland repeated its score from the fall ranking of C

One other hospital in the Midlands received an A, while one that was previously the lowest rated hospital in South Carolina in the fall ranking has improved its status.

▪ Prisma Health Tuomey’s (in Sumter) grade rose one letter from B in the fall ranking to A

▪ MUSC Health Kershaw Medical Center’s grade rose one letter from C in the fall ranking to B

▪ Newberry County Memorial Hospital repeated its score from the fall ranking of C

▪ Regional Medical Center of Orangeburg and Calhoun Counties has only received D or F grades since 2020, but its score rose to C

▪ McCleod Health Clarendon in Manning has only received an A grade since 2020, but its score dropped to C

Grading South Carolina

Overall in South Carolina, of the 51 hospitals that were ranked, 21 received a letter A. That’s an improvement from 15 in the fall rankings.

No hospitals in the Palmetto State received either a D or F in the spring grades. That’s another improvement from the fall when the Regional Medical Center of Orangeburg and Calhoun Counties was given a D, which was the only hospital scored that low.

The improvement of hospital grades was reflected in South Carolina’s standing among other states. Nationally, South Carolina ranked 7th among all states, with more than 41% of its hospitals scoring an A rating. That was a significant increase from the spring (29%), when the Palmetto State was ranked 21st in the nation.

The bigger picture

New Jersey (51.5%) saw a significant rise to become the top-rated state in the U.S. There was a three-way tie for lowest grade among North Dakota, Delaware, and Washington, D.C., as none had a hospital with an A grade.

“Upwards of 250,000 people die every year from preventable errors in hospitals,” the Leapfrog Group said. “It’s up to everyone to make sure that patient safety is the number one priority at every hospital across the United States.”

Leapfrog graded about 3,000 hospitals nationwide this spring, and 29% earned an A, 26% earned a B, 39% a C, 6% a D and less than 1% scored an F, according to its website.

The grades are based on safety data and rate how hospitals have “checks in place to prevent mistakes, and ensure strong lines of communication between hospital staff, patients, and families,” according to Leapfrog.

The latest safety report showed a rise in healthcare-associated infections, a trend that began during the COVID-19 pandemic and has continued, according to Leapfrog.

“The dramatic spike in (healthcare-associated infections) reported in this safety grade cycle should stop hospitals in their tracks — infections like these can be life or death for some patients,” Leapfrog President and CEO Leah Binder said in a news release. “We recognize the tremendous strain the pandemic put on hospitals and their workforce, but alarming findings like these indicate hospitals must recommit to patient safety and build more resilience.”

Leapfrog said more than 1,000 people will die today because of a preventable hospital error, and every year 1-of-25 patients will develop a preventable infection while in the hospital.

“Leapfrog advises the public never to reject emergency treatment based on a safety score, but to consult with a doctor about the best hospital for planned, elective procedures,” the News & Observer of Raleigh previously reported.

But Leapfrog’s study shows that patients at ‘D’ and ‘F’ hospitals face a greater risk of dying than those at hospitals graded A.

Making the grade

The Leapfrog Group said more than 30 measures are used to generate hospital safety grades, and it reports on five patient experience measures that have a direct impact on patient safety outcomes: nurse communication, doctor communication, staff responsiveness, communication about medicine and discharge information.

The Leapfrog safety grade is divided into two domains: Process/Structural Measures and Outcome Measures.

▪ Process Measures represent how often a hospital gives patients recommended treatment for a given medical condition or procedure. For example, “Responsiveness of hospital staff” looks at patients’ feedback on how long it takes for a staff member to respond when they request help. Structural Measures represent the environment in which patients receive care. For example, “Doctors order medications through a computer” represents whether a hospital uses a special computerized system to prevent errors when prescribing medications.

▪ Outcome Measures represent what happens to a patient while receiving care. For example, “Dangerous object left in patient’s body” measures how many times a patient undergoing surgery had a dangerous foreign object, like a sponge or tool, left in his or her body.

The Process Measures include:

▪ Computerized Physician Order Entry

▪ Bar Code Medication Administration

▪ ICU Physician Staffing

▪ Leadership Structures and Systems

▪ Culture Measurement, Feedback & Intervention

▪ Nursing Workforce

▪ Hand Hygiene

▪ Nurse Communication

▪ Doctor Communication

▪ Staff Responsiveness

▪ Communication about Medicines

▪ Discharge Information

The Outcome Measures include:

▪ Foreign Object Retained

▪ Air Embolism

▪ Falls and Trauma

▪ CLABSI

▪ CAUTI

▪ SSI: Colon

▪ MRSA

▪ C. Diff.

▪ Pressure Ulcer Rate

▪ Death Rate among Surgical Inpatients with Serious Treatable Conditions

▪ In-hospital fall with hip fracture rate

▪ Perioperative hemorrhage and hematoma rate

▪ Postoperative acute kidney injury rate

▪ Postoperative Respiratory Failure Rate

▪ Perioperative PE/DVT Rate

▪ Postoperative sepsis rate

▪ Postoperative Wound Dehiscence Rate

▪ Unrecognized Abdominopelvic Accidental Puncture/Laceration Rate

SOURCE: Leapfrog Medical Group