Hospital Safety Grades: 2 Napa Valley Hospitals Receive "C", "D" Grades

By MARC TORRENCE (Patch National Staff)

NAPA VALLEY - The Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit founded by employers and health-care providers, announced its Spring 2016 hospital safety rankings Monday, a measure of how safe a hospital is for patients.

Hospitals were given a letter grade from A through F based on several factors. Of the 2,571 hospitals studied nationwide, 798 earned an A, 639 earned a B, 957 earned a C, 162 earned a D and 15 earned an F.

In Napa Valley, the two hospitals - St. Helena Hospital and Queen of the Valley Medical Center - received "C" and "D" marks from the study.

Here are the Napa Valley hospital rankings as noted by Leapfrog:

"C" rank

• St. Helena - St. Helena Hospital

"D" rank

• Napa - Queen of the Valley Medical Center

Patch reached out to Queen of the Valley for comment, and received the following response from Walt Mickens, President & CEO:

“Working to provide perfect care to our community is our top priority, and we are proud of our track record of patient safety and stellar care. Like many hospitals, we appreciate any metrics that help us find ways we can improve our care and patient experiences. We also know these reports do not provide a complete picture of what goes on in our hospital and the data that is submitted is not representative of our current performance. We have submitted more recent data to leapfrog which shows improvements and better than benchmark performance in a number of the Safe Best Practices like Hand Hygiene, and use of Computer Physician Order Entry (CPOE).

“We continuously review and evaluate all internal and external Quality Ranking systems to be sure we are performing to the highest standards. Our next submission to Leapfrog will be in June. Additionally, our hospital performs rigorous internal reviews of our quality and safety on a regular basis. We are confident that our focus on continuous improvement will uphold our commitment to providing a safe environment for our patients.”

At the state level, Vermont was ranked No. 1 on Leapfrog's state safety rankings list. Six hospitals in the state were ranked, and five were given an A grade. Maine, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Minnesota rounded out the top five.

California ranked #37.

State rankings were based on a percentage of state hospitals receiving an A grade.

• See the full list of hospital safety scores here.

Leapfrog looked at medical errors, accidents, injuries and infections to determine the grades. The goal was to determine a patient's risk of further injury or infection if they visited a certain hospital.

Hospitals given a B rating by Leapfrog had a 9 percent higher risk of avoidable death than A hospitals. That number jumps to 35 percent in C hospitals and 50 percent higher in D and F hospitals.

The analysis estimates that 33,459 lives could be saved if every hospital improved their safety record to A standards. Still, the study estimates 43,903 avoidable deaths in A hospitals each year.

Patch has reached out to Leapfrog for more information, and we'll let you know when we hear back.

Leapfrog releases its rankings twice a year.

“It is time for every hospital in America to put patient safety at the top of their priority list, because tens of thousands of lives are stake,” Leapfrog President Leah Binder said in a press release. “The Hospital Safety Score alerts consumers to the dangers, but as this analysis shows, even A hospitals are not perfectly safe.”

Leapfrog also conducted an analysis with researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine's Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality. They estimated that 206,021 avoidable deaths occur each year in U.S. hospitals.

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