Crain's:
Illinois hospitals earn mixed safety scores
By Andrew L. Wang
November 28, 2012
About a fifth of Illinois hospitals improved their patient safety ratings in the last six months, while an equal number saw their grades drop, according to updated results of a national health safety survey (below).
Five Illinois hospitals — four of which are Chicago safety-net hospitals — out of 118 surveyed received F's, the lowest grade possible, while two others received the second-lowest, D, according to the results reported by Leapfrog Group, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that represents large employers that buy health benefits for their workers. (See the graphic below for all of the grades for Illinois hospitals.)
At the other end of the spectrum, 51 hospitals received A's, according to the data, which were released this morning. Thirty-three of the highest graded were in the Chicago area, which had the most hospitals rated A of any metropolitan region in the country, according to the Midwest Business Group on Health, a Chicago-based association of large employers that released the ratings in conjunction with Leapfrog.
“The Hospital Safety Score program highlights the country's safest hospitals and provides important information for consumers about a community's hospitals and which institutions are placing a priority on avoiding preventable deaths and injuries,” Larry Boress, president and CEO of the Midwest Business Group, said in a statement. “Illinois consumers should use the Hospital Safety Score as an important resource when choosing a hospital for their families in non-emergency situations and as a topic to discuss with their doctors.”
The grades are based on 26 publicly available measures of patient safety. Leapfrog released its initial 2012 report in June; the grades released today were a planned update on the earlier results.
The five hospitals that received the lowest grade were:
• Jackson Park Hospital and Medical Center on Chicago's Far South Side
• Loretto Hospital on the city's West Side, along the Eisenhower Expressway
• Norwegian American Hospital on the Northwest Side, in the Humboldt Park neighborhood
• Roseland Community Hospital on the Far South Side
• Jersey Community Hospital in Jerseyville, about 40 miles north of St. Louis.
Hospitals that received a D or F “demonstrated poor national surgical outcomes scores, non-use of evidenced-based patient safety processes, or had not shown an organizational commitment to patient safety by the November release,” according to a statement from MBGH.
Illinois has 214 hospitals, according to the state department of public health.
Three of the Chicago area's academic medical centers — Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Rush University Medical Center and University of Chicago Medicine — received A grades, while two others, the University of Illinois Hospital and Loyola University Medical Center, received Cs, the same grade they were assigned in the June survey.
|
