Falmouth Hospital Gets 'A' Rating In Safety

FALMOUTH, MA — Twenty-four out of the 59 Massachusetts hospitals to receive a safety grade from the Leapfrog Group earned an A, according to the nonprofit's Spring 2019 ratings released Tuesday, and Falmouth Hospital was among those recognized.

The hospital has made quite the leap over the last four years. According to Leapfrog, Falmouth Hospital was given a C in spring 2016 and then sat at a B until fall of 2018.

Safety grades are released by the nonprofit organization twice per year, in the spring and the fall. The ratings of more than 2,600 hospitals, 59 of which were in Massachusetts, focus on accidents, injuries and infections, and help to assess how well a facility prevents medical errors and other harm to patients.

It's worth noting the metrics used to determine this spring's hospital grades originated from safety data reported for periods ending in 2018 and 2019. The report does not take into account the strain the new coronavirus outbreak is placing on some hospitals where staff are experiencing shortages of drugs and protection equipment.

In MA out of 59 hospitals listed:

• 24 hospitals received an A grade.
• 20 hospitals received a B grade.
• 15 hospitals received a C grade.

See the full ratings for Massachusetts hospitals here.

The goal of the Hospital Safety Grade is to reduce deaths caused by hospital errors and injuries.
Leapfrog estimates that if the risk at all hospitals was equivalent to what it is at "A" hospitals, 50,000 lives at other facilities would have been saved. Overall, the researchers estimate that 160,000 lives are lost every year due to avoidable medical errors. That figure is down from 2016, when the Leapfrog Group estimated there were 205,000 avoidable deaths.

For a full description of the methodology, go here.