Covenant Health hospitals earn ‘A’ grades for patient safety

Methodist Medical Center, Fort Loudoun Medical Center, Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center, Morristown-Hamblen Healthcare System, and Parkwest Medical Center have been recognized for their dedication to patient safety by being awarded an “A” grade in the Spring 2015 Hospital Safety Score, a press release said.

The Safety Score rates how well hospitals protect patients from preventable medical errors, injuries, and infections within the hospital.

In addition to receiving As for the spring quarter, both Methodist Medical Center and Parkwest Medical Center received “Straight A” recognition, signifying that the hospitals have never received a grade lower than “A” from the Hospital Safety Score since the Score first launched in June 2012, the press release said. They are among 182 hospitals to receive the recognition.

The Hospital Safety Score is compiled under the guidance of the nation’s leading patient safety experts and administered by The Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit organization focused on initiating improvements in safety, quality, and health care affordability for Americans. The first and only hospital safety rating to be peer-reviewed in the Journal of Patient Safety, the Score is free to the public and designed to give consumers information they can use to protect themselves and their families when facing a hospital stay.

“Patient safety is an ongoing priority for our health system,” said Jim VanderSteeg, executive vice president and chief operating officer for Covenant Health. “Measurement against national benchmarks is both helpful and important for improving safety, and The Hospital Safety Score is one way for us to monitor progress in this area. We’re pleased that several Covenant hospitals received ‘A’ scores, and that two received ‘Straight A’ recognition.”

“Patient safety requires constant vigilance. Hospitals’ ‘A’ grades validate their achievement in preventing harm, and we are proud to recognize the efforts of the care providers and staff,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group.

Developed under the guidance of Leapfrog’s Blue Ribbon Expert Panel, the Hospital Safety Score uses 28 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to produce a single A, B, C, D, or F score, representing a hospital’s overall capacity to keep patients safe from preventable harm. More than 2,500 U.S. general hospitals were assigned scores in April 2015, with about 31 percent receiving an “A” grade. The Hospital Safety Score is fully transparent, offering a full analysis of the data and methodology used in determining grades on the website.

To see how Covenant hospitals compare locally and nationally, and to access consumer-friendly tips related to hospital safety, visit www.hospitalsafetyscore.org. Consumers can also follow The Hospital Safety Score on social media and download the free Hospital Safety Score app for mobile devices.

Note: The (Leapfrog) Hospital Safety ScoreSM grades hospitals on data related to how safe they are for patients. For more information, visit www.hospitalsafetyscore.org.