Virginia scored second in the fall 2022 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade rankings, after scoring second in the spring 2022 ranking and first in the fall 2021 ranking.
“Hospitals across Virginia are unique in many ways including where they are located, the communities and patients they serve, and the types of medical care they most commonly provide. But what each hospital has in common is an unparalleled commitment to giving each patient high-quality care in a safe environment,” Chair of the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association (VHHA) Board of Directors Peter Mulkey said in a press release. “It is an honor to be part of a hospital community that prides itself on achieving exceptional patient care and safety.”
The ranking is based on the percentage of hospitals in the state that received an “A” grade. New Hampshire ranked first, with 53.8 percent; Virginia ranked second, with 52.1 percent; and Utah ranked third, with 51.9 percent.
The hospital safety grade is based on measures of patient safety focused on the process or structural measures, including elements like the responsiveness of hospital staff or the use of computers to prevent medication prescribing errors, according to Leapfrog.
The grade is also based on patient outcomes — for example, “Dangerous object left in patient’s body.”
Most of Virginia’s 71 graded hospitals received “A” or “B” grades, with 11 receiving “C’ grades and Fauquier Hospital receiving a “D” grade. Certain hospitals like Veterans Affairs and military hospitals aren’t graded.
“Our hospital and health system members intentionally collaborate on driving performance improvement on patient safety outcomes,” VHHA President Sean Connaughton said. “These new rankings from the Leapfrog Group are validation of that collaborative work and the positive results it is producing for patients across Virginia.”
Nationally, Leapfrog said that there had been an improvement in patient safety over the past ten years.
“Measures that have shown significant improvement over the decade include some never events, meaning medical events that should never happen. Two never events that both decreased by around 25 percent include incidents of falls and trauma and incidents of objects unintentionally left in a body after surgery. There was also encouraging pre-pandemic progress on healthcare-associated infections,” Leapfrog said in a press release.
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Eric Burk is a reporter at The Virginia Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “UVA Health Prince William Medical Center” by UVA Health Prince William Medical Center.
