Local hospitals get two Cs and an A in safety report
Mary Washington Hospital and Stafford Hospital both got better grades in the most recent report from a national organization that monitors the safety practices of hospitals while Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center received the same grade for the fall as the spring.
Mary Washington's fall rating rose to a "C" from a "D" while Stafford received an "A," up from the "B" it got in the spring rating. Spotsylvania Regional's score remained a "C."
The Leapfrog Group's Hospital Safety Grade assigns letter grades to hospitals based on their record of patient safety and how they protect patients from errors and injuries, accidents and infections.
Some hospitals fare poorly in that regard, according to Leapfrog, as more than 250,000 people die every year from preventable errors. Mistakes include issues such as air or gas bubbles in the blood, which can happen during surgery and other procedures. The "air embolisms" can block blood flow and cause stroke or death.
Likewise, one of every 31 patients develops an infection while in the hospital, "an infection that didn't have to happen," Leapfrog states.
"A hospital may have the best surgeons and greatest technology in the world, but unless it is preventing infections and eliminating errors, it is not delivering on a very basic premise: ensuring the safety of you and your loved ones," according to the Leapfrog report .
Stafford Hospital got its best marks in practices to prevent errors such as in the ordering and administering of medication, handwashing and working as a staff to prevent problems. Its leadership, nurses and bedside care got high marks, but Stafford was rated worse than average on surgical wounds that split open, kidney injury after surgery and accidental cuts and tears.
Mary Washington Hospital got the same better-than-average scores for practices to prevent errors as Stafford Hospital. But it scored worse than average in five of the seven categories related to surgery. They were: death from serious, treatable complications; surgical wounds split open; blood leakage; kidney injury after surgery; and serious breathing problems.
For Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center, its ratings were across the board as it received average, better than average and worse than average in the categories of infections, problems with surgery, safety problems and practices to prevent errors.
But it scored worse than average in all six measurements of doctors, nurses and hospital staff. That category rates effective leadership at the hospital level, bedside care, specialty doctors, communication with nurses and doctors and the responsiveness of hospital staff.
Virginia retained its rank as having the second-highest percentage of hospitals with "A" grades. That was 57.7% of hospitals in the state for the fall and 56.3% for the spring.
Utah led the nation with the highest number of hospitals with "A" grades in the fall and spring.
More information about Leapfrog's twice-a-year report is available online at hospitalsafetygrade.org/.
Cathy Dyson
Health, King George, features and is a local columnist
