Hospital and surgical center safety scores are based on preventable medical errors, injuries, accidents, infections and other complications. Many local hospitals and surgical centers score highly, but some still have a way to go to reliably deliver safe health care. To compile this information, we relied on two independent organizations that based scores on research and public comments from patients. Click HERE to enter Fort Worth, Texas magazine's Be Well Fort Worth weekly giveaways.
The Leapfrog Group, an independent national nonprofit run by employers and other large purchasers of health benefits, issued its first Hospital Safety Score last year, assigning a grade of A, B, C, D or F to more than 2,600 U.S. hospitals.
"Approximately 400 people die every day because of hospital errors - the equivalent of a jet crashing every day and killing all aboard," Leapfrog said in announcing the scoring system. The group called it a "silent epidemic."
The Hospital Safety Score is calculated using publicly available data on patient injuries, medical and medication errors and infections, Leapfrog said in announcing the safety score. Of the 2,652 general hospitals issued a Hospital Safety Score, 729 earned an "A," 679 earned a "B" and 1,243 earned a "C" or below.
The ratings are issued annually.
The organization says that the ratings are under guidance of a nine-member panel of recognized health safety experts and use 26 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to produce a single score representing a hospital's overall capacity to keep patients safe from infections, injuries, and medical and medication errors.
Not all hospitals are rated since not all are required to make the full list of measures publicly available. Exempt hospitals include some specialty hospitals, such as children's hospitals and surgical centers and critical access hospitals.
Cook Children's Medical Center is an example.
Leapfrog's oversight panel required at least 14 measures for a hospital in order to calculate a Hospital Safety Score. Those without 14 measures were not scored.
The Leapfrog Group is a voluntary program.
- From The Leapfrog Group website (leapfroggroup.org)
See also: Leapfrog's Hospital Safety Score website (hospitalsafetyscore.org) and the Medicare hospital comparison website (medicare.gov/hospitalcompare).
Leapfrog Hospital Safety Score does not rate surgical centers or children's hospitals in Texas. To report on local surgical centers and how they rated in patient safety, we utilized Healthgrades.
Healthgrades was founded in 1998 and is the leading online network to research and select a doctor, hospital or surgical center. It provides objective information on clinical outcomes, patient safety and patient satisfaction.
Healthgrades measures patient safety by how well a hospital prevents infection, medical errors and other complications. The patient safety ratings look at 13 types of preventable hospital complications.
It uses Medicare inpatient data from the Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MedPAR) database and Patient Safety Indicator software from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to calculate event rates for 13 patient safety indicators (PSI).
To significantly reduce your risk of medical errors and complications, look for hospitals that are rated "Better than Average" for patient safety indicators.
