By JERILYN FORSYTHE
Cronkite News Service
WASHINGTON – More than half of the 47 Arizona hospitals ranked in a recent survey of patient safety got a grade of C, the lowest grade offered in the first year of the national report, but Payson Regional Medical Center received an A.
The survey by the Leapfrog Group measured 26 patient-safety factors, everything from the hospital’s computer system to how often catheters are removed and even the frequency of surgeons accidentally sewing up a patient with an object left inside.
Arizona was one of nine states where about two-thirds of hospitals earned a C in the survey. The survey evaluated 2,651 hospitals nationwide, and 1,111 hospitals received a C grade.
In Arizona, 30 hospitals got a C, seven got a B, nine got an A and one got a “pending” score, giving it time to pull its grade up from below C.
While some Arizona hospitals told Wertheim they were less than pleased with how the survey was conducted, at least one that did well was grateful to be recognized for its safety efforts.
“We’re very excited about it,” said Patricia Patterson, a spokeswoman for Payson Regional Medical Center. It was one of the nine Arizona hospitals to get an A.
“It (patient safety) is always a focus for us,” Patterson said.
A spokesman for the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association challenged the report, saying he hopes Leapfrog “would improve the methodology” before the next report. But he also said hospitals in the state would look at the report and address any problems it identifies.
“We have not received any positive feedback about how they did this survey or the methodology,” said the association spokesman, Peter Wertheim. “But it’s a laudable goal and one that hospitals support.”
The survey graded hospitals on 26 different categories of patient safety that the hospitals were asked to voluntarily report. Because of that, some hospitals were graded on more data than others.
“It’s patently unfair to hospitals, because they’re getting scored on fewer elements,” Wertheim said of some facilities.
The survey is part of an initiative by the nonprofit Leapfrog Group to reduce preventable hospital mistakes, which it said claims more than 400 lives every day.
“Even if you have the best heart surgeon in the world, if the hospital isn’t safe, your trip was in vain,” said Leapfrog spokeswoman Erica Newman.
The most important factor in the survey was a hospital’s computer system. Newman said that is the same system that would tell a staff member he is giving a 12-year-old an adult dose of a medication or fatally mixing two different medications.
Newman conceded that the amount of information a hospital provided may affect its grade, but she said the survey tried to balance that by weighting patient-safety criteria and by not giving a grade to those with too much missing data.
Hospitals could submit as much information as they would like, or not participate at all, she said.
“Of course, the more measures they have, the least likely that one bad measure will influence their score in a negative way,” Newman said. “We did consult multiple secondary data sources to give hospitals as much credit as possible towards their score.”
Leapfrog will reissue grades in November, giving hospitals a chance to improve their scores, before they hand out D and F grades.
Newman said Leapfrog hopes patients will use the information in the survey when they pick a hospital.
“We hope that patients will ask their hospitals, ‘Why aren’t they getting an A?’ and ‘How are they going to fix that?’” Newman said.
Wertheim said that while “people are going to see it and use it,” he urged patients to rely on more than the survey when considering a hospital’s safety.
“You can use these report cards, but certainly ask questions of the hospital and of the doctors and investigate yourself as well,” Wertheim said.
Measuring Patient Safety
Among the 26 criteria used by Leapfrog in grading patient safety in hospitals were:- Hand hygiene of hospital staff
- Occurrence of falls or trauma
- Wounds splitting open after surgery
- Death from treatable complications after surgery
- How well the intensive-care unit is staffed
- Accidental cuts or tears from medical treatment
2 comments:
I have been treated well at the hospital.
I do have personal knowlege, however, of several recent mis-diagnosis incidents by doctors in Emergency.
One patient was told that they had suffered a heart attack and treatment was immediately begun. Once a proper physician came in, though, Pnuemonia was found to be the actual culprit.
Another patient was diagnosed with a serious contagious disease and was placed in isolation, only to be told later that they had something far less serious.
A very dedicated nurse I personally know quit her job at the hospital because of her allegations of mis-management and cover-ups.
It ain't all sunshine and roses. Buyer beware.
Lots of stories of misdiagnosis in that ER -- I know three others.
My then-83 year old mother arrived there in the middle of the night after falling when walking from her bedroom to see if she had left the light on in the kitchen.
1. No concern shown for WHY she had fallen - had she blacked out?
2. She was X-rayed and sent back home (to Forest Lakes, 40 miles away) with her 83 year old husband where he helped her up the six steps into the cabin. Told nothing was wrong, go home and take some Tylenol.
3. After an agonizing trip up the stairs into the cabin and a miserable night, they were just calling her personal doctor in Scottsdale when the hospital called back to say that apparently someone with a brain had looked at her X rays and she needed to come back to the hospital because she had a BROKEN HIP and DISLOCATED FINGER than had been missed (ignored?) when she had been in the ER.
I also know of two other "send 'em home" diagnoses from that ER that were of patients with SERIOUS medical conditions that were missed.
Maybe the care level once you're in the hospital is exemplary, but I have given serious thought to having it tattooed on my chest to airlift me to Scottsdale rather than taking me to the ER in Payson if something happens to me.
It's utterly unconscionable what they did to my mother -- paying no attention to what might have caused the fall, not reading the X rays right, sending someone of that age home in the middle of the night in horrible pain and with only her aging spouse to assist her back into the house.
I pray to God I'll never have to go to that ER.
I had hoped when it was time for a retirement home that my parents might have moved to one of the facilities up here, but at their age, they need to be near a hospital they can trust. And we don't have one.
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