SOUTHBRIDGE, Mass., October 23, 2013 — 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 Leapfrog Group rated the nations acute care (general) hospitals on how safe they are for patients, including how well hospitals protect patients from accidents, errors, injuries and infections.
The score includes data that patient safety experts use to compare hospitals. Publicly available data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, The Leapfrog Hospital Survey, and secondary data sources are weighted and then combined to produce a single, consumer-friendly composite letter-grade score.
The Hospital Safety Score is compiled under the guidance of the nations leading experts on patient safety and is administered by The Leapfrog Group (Leapfrog), 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.
“Patient safety is always a primary concern at Harrington; we are focused on patient safety every day,” said Harrington President and CEO Edward H. Moore. “This is the third consecutive time we have received the Leapfrogs highest rating.”
Kathleen Davis, Vice President of Quality and Patient Safety at Harrington, said, “All of us at Harrington – nurses, physicians, technicians, and other staff members – make safety a priority.”
The Leapfrog Group calculated Hospital Safety Scores for hospitals nationwide for which there was sufficient publicly available data. Of the 2,539 general hospitals given a Hospital Safety Score, 813earned an “A,” 661earned a “B,” and 893 earned a “C,” 350 received a “D,” and 22 scored an “F.”
The latest Leapfrog rating is one of a number of quality and patient safety achievements at Harrington HealthCare System recently. Among Harringtons achievements are:
• 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.
• Winning an award for “Highest and Most Improved” in a key stroke screening indicator — dysphagia.
“As patients begin to take a more active role in selecting where to receive health care, it has never been more important to focus on hospital safety and transparency. The ‘A hospitals, including Harrington, are helping us to raise the standards of health care nationwide,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of Leapfrog. “We offer our congratulations and hope the hospital will continue to strive for an ever-increasing level of excellence in patient safety.”
Calculated under the guidance of Leapfrogs Blue Ribbon Expert Panel, the Hospital Safety Score uses 28 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to produce a single letter score representing a hospitals overall capacity to keep patients safe from preventable harm. More than 2,500 general U.S. hospitals were assigned scores this fall.
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