Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital Safety Grade Drops

LAKE FOREST, IL — A national health care safety watchdog reduced its rating of Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital.

The Leapfrog Group on Wednesday released its fall 2021 Hospital Safety Grades, which assign a letter grade to the nation’s general hospitals based on more than two dozen measurements of their effectiveness at preventing medical errors, accidents, injuries, and infections that kill or harm patients.

This year’s list reviewed just over 2,900 hospitals, the largest number of hospitals ever graded.

“As the pandemic continues, we all have heightened awareness of the importance of hospitals in our communities and in our lives,” Leapfrog Group CEO Leah Binder said in a release. “It is critical that all hospitals put patient safety first. Now we have more information on more hospitals than ever before, so people can protect themselves and their families."

According to a table of the factors that went into Lake Forest Hospital's score, the received the maximum score in some factors from the 2021 Leapfrog Hospital Survey and above average on many medical outcome measurements.

Measurements where Lake Forest Hospital performed below the average hospital: dangerous bed sores, dangerous objects left in patient's body, Clostridium difficile infections and deaths from serious complications.

A Lake Forest Hospital spokesperson said in a statement that the hospital is committed to safe and patient-centered quality health care.

"Our physicians, nurses and staff are driven by their dedication and passion for delivering outstanding care while always striving to do what is better for our patient. We believe that quality and safety data should be meaningful, informative and transparent to the public," media relations manager Jill Edgeworth told Patch. "We appreciate the ongoing efforts by Leapfrog to improve the usefulness and accessibility of information for consumers."

The flagship hospital of the Northwestern Medicine health care system, Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, also saw its safety grade reduced to a C between the spring and fall of 2021.

The lowest-rated hospital in the north suburbs was Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan.

"Vista did not participate in Leapfrog’s reporting program and do not feel it reflects our commitment to quality and safety," Vista Health System Marketing Manager Stephanie Vera told Patch in a statement. "Like all hospitals, we are rated by various organizations for patient care quality, safety and satisfaction, and each rating system differs in its methodology."

Vera said the hospital is focused on patient safety and satisfaction and has received the Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval for hip and knee surgery and as a primary stroke center, as well as accreditation as a bariatric surgery center.

"Hospital performance scores and their methodologies vary widely among the numerous rating organizations throughout the U.S.," Vera said. "When making health care decisions, patients and consumers should have access to all available tools at their disposal to support their decision-making process."

Find grades for other north suburban hospitals below:

Amita Health Saint Francis Hospital Evanston
355 Ridge Ave., Evanston
Spring 2021 Grade: C
Fall 2021 Grade: B

NorthShore University HealthSystem Evanston Hospital
2650 Ridge Ave., Evanston
Spring 2021 Grade: A
Fall 2021 Grade: B

Advocate Lutheran General Hospital
1774 Dempster St., Park Ridge
Spring 2021 Grade: C
Fall 2021 Grade: C

NorthShore University HealthSystem Glenbrook Hospital
2100 Pfingsten Road, Glenview
Spring 2021 Grade: A
Fall 2021 Grade: B

NorthShore University HealthSystem Highland Park Hospital
777 Park Ave. W., Highland Park
Spring 2021 Grade: B
Fall 2021 Grade: C

Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital
1000 N. Westmoreland Road
Spring 2021 Grade: B
Fall 2021 Grade: C

Advocate Condell Medical Center
801 S. Milwaukee Ave., Libertyville
Spring 2021 Grade: C
Fall 2021 Grade: C

Vista Medical Center East
1324 N. Sheridan Road, Waukegan
Spring 2021 Grade: D
Fall 2021 Grade: D

To determine each hospital’s grade, a panel of medical experts selected 30 evidence-based measures of patient safety such as postoperative sepsis, blood leakage and kidney injury. They then determined the weight of each measure based on evidence, opportunity for improvement and patient impact.

Data on each measure was collected through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Information from the Leapfrog Hospital Survey, available to all hospitals to complete, also affects grades.

Currently, Leapfrog does not assign grades to military or Veterans Administration hospitals, critical access hospitals, specialty hospitals, children’s hospitals or outpatient surgery centers.

Related: New Illinois Hospital Safety Grades: 33 A's, 5 D's, 1 F

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade methodology has been peer-reviewed and published in the Journal of Patient Safety.

The full methodology for the 2021 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is available online.

The five states with the highest percentages of "A-graded" hospitals are Virginia, North Carolina, Idaho, Massachusetts and Colorado, but there were no "A" hospitals in Delaware, Washington, D.C. and North Dakota.

Overall, 32 percent of hospitals received an "A" grade, 26 percent got "B's", 35 received a "C," 7 percent got a "D" and less than 1 percent got an "F."