SOUTHBRIDGE, Mass. – November 25, 2014 – Harrington Hospital has received the highest grade – an “A” – in an independent survey of more than 2,500 acute-care hospitals nationwide conducted by The Leapfrog Group, a healthcare rating organization.
The score puts Harrington in an elite class of regional hospitals-only 204 out of the 2,500 surveyed-that have obtained the highest grade for six straight periods.
“Patient safety is of paramount importance to us at Harrington HealthCare System; we are focused on patient safety every day,” said Harrington President and CEO Ed Moore. “We are proud of every member of our medical team. They have all helped us achieve our sixth A, which is a testament to our commitment to safety within Harrington.”
The Leapfrog Group rated the nation’s general (acute-care) hospitals on how safe they are for patients, including how well hospitals protect patients from accidents, errors, injuries, and infections. The hospitals are graded twice annually.
Twenty-eight measures of publicly available data are weighted and then combined to produce a single letter-grade score.
The Hospital Safety Score is compiled under the guidance of the nation’s leading experts on patient safety and is administered by The Leapfrog Group, an independent industry watchdog. The first and only hospital safety rating to be analyzed in the peer-reviewed Journal of Patient Safety, the score is designed to give the public information they can use to protect themselves and their families.
Since April 2014, when the last report was released, 72 hospitals changed their grade by two or more letters-for better or for worse. In the fall 2014 safety score release, 790 hospitals received an “A”, a drop from 804 in April. Leapfrog CEO Leah Binder noted approximately 41 percent of hospitals received a C, D, or F grade.
The latest Leapfrog rating is one of a number of quality and patient safety achievements at Harrington HealthCare System recently. Among Harrington’s achievements are:
• Get With The Guidelines Silver Plus Award for implementing specific quality improvement measures outlined by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association for the treatment of stroke patients
• Being ranked #7 out of more than 60 Massachusetts hospitals surveyed by GoLocalWorcester.com
• Mass Department of Public Health SCORE (Stroke Collaborative Reaching for Excellence) Award for defect-free care
• A statewide award by an advisory panel to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) for the exemplary work of its TB Clinic.
• Joint Commission Top Improver for CORE Measures
• Ranking among the top 2 percent of all hospitals in the country for short wait times, according to statistics compiled by an influential healthcare publication.
• 2013 Top Hospital Recipient by The Leapfrog Group
Awarded scores are public data and can be viewed by visiting www.hospitalsafetyscore.org.
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