New GA Hospital Safety Ratings Released: See Best, Worst

GEORGIA — Several Georgia hospitals received top grades in protecting patient safety, even as the average risk of contracting deadly infections remained elevated nationwide after spiking to a five-year high during the pandemic, according to the spring 2023 hospital safety grades released Wednesday by The Leapfrog Group, an independent nonprofit health care watchdog.

Patient experience measures — like communication from doctors — also declined, according to the report. Leapfrog said the findings should be a wake-up call to hospitals nationwide.

The Leapfrog Group uses an academic grading scale with five letter grades to score nearly 3,000 hospitals nationwide on more than 30 measures of patient safety. Leapfrog says its hospital rating system is the only one in the country focusing solely on a hospital’s ability to protect patients from preventable errors.

In Georgia, 14 hospitals received an A, 16 hospitals received a B, 27 hospitals received a C and four hospitals received a D grade.

Here are the ratings, according to Leapfrog:

A

Wellstar West Georgia Medical Center - LaGrange
Piedmont Augusta Hospital - Augusta
Wellstar Kennestone Medical Center - Marietta
Memorial Health University Medical Center - Savannah
Wellstar Paulding Hospital - Hiram
Northeast Georgia Medical Center - Winder
Atrium Health Floyd Medical Center - Rome
Colquitt Regional Medical Center - Moultrie
Fairview Park Hospital - Dublin
AdventHealth Redmond - Rome
Doctors Hospital of Augusta - Augusta
Piedmont Macon North Hospital - Macon
Piedmont Mountainside Hospital - Jasper
Piedmont Columbus Regional - Northside - Columbus

B

Northeast Georgia Medical Center - Braselton
Piedmont Fayette Hospital - Fayetteville
Piedmont Eastside Medical Center - Snellville
Wellstar Douglas Medical Center - Douglasville
Southern Regional Medical Center - Riverdale
Northside Hospital Atlanta - Atlanta
Wellstar Cobb Medical Center - Austell
Memorial Health Meadows Hospital - Vidalia
Piedmont Rockdale Hospital - Conyers
Piedmont Hospital - Atlanta
Emory St. Joseph’s Hospital - Atlanta
East Georgia Regional Medical Center - Statesboro
Piedmont Columbus Regional Midtown - Columbus
Piedmont Cartersville Medical Center - Cartersville
Northeast Georgia Medical Center - Gainesville
Upson Regional Medical Center - Thomaston

C

Hamilton Medical Center - Dalton
Northside Hospital Forsyth - Cumming
Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital - Albany
Northside Hospital Cherokee - Canton
Tanner Medical Center of Carrollton - Carrollton
Tanner Medical Center of Villa Rica - Villa Rica
Piedmont Newton Hospital - Covington
AdventHealth Gordon - Calhoun
Southeast Georgia Health System - Brunswick Campus
Northside Hospital Duluth - Duluth
Wellstar Spalding Regional Hospital - Griffin
Piedmont Walton - Monroe
Emory Decatur Hospital - Decatur
Grady Memorial Hospital Corporation - Atlanta
Northside Hospital Gwinnett - Lawrenceville
St. Francis-Emory Healthcare - Columbus
Southeast Georgia Health System - Camden Campus - St. Marys
Piedmont Henry Hospital - Stockbridge
North Fulton Medical Center - Roswell
Piedmont Newnan Hospital - Newnan
Emory Johns Creek Hospital - Johns Creek

D

Emory Hillandale Hospital - Lithonia
Wayne Memorial Hospital - Jesup
Emory University Hospital Midtown - Atlanta
Emory University Hospital - Atlanta

High rates of three health care-associated infections, or HAIs, “should stop hospitals in their tracks,” Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, said in a news release, noting that “infections like these can be life for death for some patients.”

“We recognize the tremendous strain the pandemic put on hospitals and their workforce, but alarming findings like these indicate hospitals must recommit to patient safety and build more resilience,” Binder said.

The problematic infections are Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA; central line-associated bloodstream infections, or CLABSI; and catheter-associated urinary tract infections, or CAUTI. When compared to rankings that covered the period immediately before the COVID-19 outbreak, the analysis found an increased infection ratio for all three infections. The spring 2023 rankings cover late 2021 and 2022.

However, another such infection, Clostridioides difficile, or C.Diff, improved and there was no significant change for surgical site infections post surgery, the report said. The standardized infection ratio used to measure changes in the rates of infections compares the actual number of reported infections to the predicted number at each hospital.

“Not only are HAIs among the leading causes of death in the U.S., they also increase length of hospitalization stays and add to costs,” Binder said. “Our pre-pandemic data showed improved HAI measures, but the spring 2023 Safety Grade data spotlights how hospital responses to the pandemic led to a decline in patient safety and HAI management.”

Patient experience measures included communication with nurses and doctors, staff responsiveness, and communication about medicine and discharge information. Nationally, the average of all five measures declined when compared to pre-pandemic measures, according to the report.