Newton-Wellesley Hospital Receives an "A" for Patient Safety

was recently honored with an “A” Hospital Safety Score^SM by The Leapfrog Group, an independent national nonprofit run by employers and other large purchasers of health benefits. The Hospital Safety Score^SM was calculated under the guidance of The Leapfrog Group’s Blue Ribbon Expert Panel using publicly available data on patient injuries, medical and medication errors, and infections. U.S. hospitals were assigned an A, B, C, D, or F for their safety.

“It is gratifying to receive this national recognition in light of all the efforts dedicated to patient safety at Newton-Wellesley Hospital,” said Les Selbovitz, MD, NWH Senior Vice President of Medical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer. “This most recent honor is a direct result of the hard work our physician and nursing leaders have been doing with safety and quality programs as well as their application of safe practices at the bedside.”

Newton-Wellesley Hospital has received numerous quality and patient safety awards over the years including:  Triple Gold Performance Achievement from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association; NSQIP Recognition for Exemplary Surgical Outcomes; Commission on Cancer three-year Accreditation with Commendation from the American College of Surgeons; Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Honor Roll for Clinical Quality; Consumer’s Digest List of 50 exceptional hospitals for patient safety; BCBS of MA Blue Distinction Designation for improving health care quality; HealthGrades – Bariatric Surgery Excellence Award; and the DPH Stroke Collaborative Reaching for Excellence (SCORE) award for “Closest to Defect-Free Care.”

“It’s The Leapfrog Group’s goal to give patients the information they need and deserve before even entering a hospital,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “We congratulate the hospitals that earned an ‘A’ and we look forward to the day when all hospitals in the U.S. will earn the highest scores for putting patient safety first.”

To see Newton-Wellesley Hospital’s scores as they compare nationally and locally, visit www.hospitalsafetyscore.org, the Hospital Safety Score^SM website, which also provides information on how the public can protect themselves and loved ones during a hospital stay.

Calculated under the guidance of The Leapfrog Group’s nine-member Blue Ribbon Expert Panel, the Hospital Safety Score uses 26 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to produce a single score representing a hospital’s overall capacity to keep patients safe from infections, injuries, and medical and medication errors. The panel includes: John Birkmeyer (University of Michigan), Ashish Jha (Harvard University), Lucian Leape (Harvard University), Arnold Millstein (Stanford University), Peter Pronovost (Johns Hopkins University), Patrick Romano (University of California, Davis), Sara Singer (Harvard University), Tim Vogus (Vanderbilt University), and Robert Wachter (University of California, San Francisco). 

 The Leapfrog Group (www.leapfroggroup.org) is a national organization using the collective leverage of large purchasers of health care to initiate breakthrough improvements in the safety, quality, and affordability of health care for Americans. The flagship Leapfrog Hospital Survey allows purchasers to structure their contracts and purchasing to reward the highest performing hospitals. The Leapfrog Group was founded in November 2000 with support from the Business Roundtable and national funders, and is now independently operated with support from its purchaser and other members.

Newton-Wellesley Hospital is a full system member of Partners HealthCare System, Inc. (PHCS), a nonprofit organization that includes acute care hospitals Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women's/Faulkner Hospitals, The North Shore Medical Center, and specialty hospitals McLean Hospital and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, as well as Dana-Farber/Partners CancerCare, and the community-based doctors and hospitals of Partners Community HealthCare, Inc.

Newton-Wellesley Hospital provides a wide range of services, including medical, surgical, obstetrical, orthopaedic, pediatric and psychiatric care. Newton-Wellesley has been serving its community for over a century. The medical staff of the Hospital includes nearly 1,000 physicians practicing a full range of specialties. NWH is a major teaching hospital for Tufts University School of Medicine and also has established post-graduate training programs for Harvard Medical School residents.

To make an appointment with a physician or for more information about Newton-Wellesley Hospital’s services, specialties, free health screenings, lectures and other events, contact CareFinder at 617.243.6566; become a friend of the Hospital on Facebook www.nwh.org/facebook;  watch our videos on YouTube www.nwh.org/youtube; and follow us on Twitter www.nwh.org/twitter.