Hospital Safety Grades: See How Mooresville’s Facility Fared

MOORESVILLE, NC — A nationwide hospital safety analysis has found that 31 hospitals in North Carolina received an “A” grade for preventing medical errors, accidents, injuries and infections, which collectively are the third leading cause of death in America. On the flip side, no hospitals received a “D” or worse.

In Mooresville, the analysis was less than ideal. Lake Norman Regional Medical Center scored a “C.” According to the report, the Mooresville hospital rated poorly when it came to Clostridium difficile infection, breathing problems and dangerous blood clots during surgery, communications about medicines, bed sores, patient falls, as well as trained doctor care in ICU and responsiveness of hospital staff.

The Leapfrog Group released its bi-yearly hospital safety grades on Tuesday, finding that hospitals overall have improved in reducing the number of avoidable deaths. The group assessed roughly 2,500 hospitals. Of those, 30 percent earned an “A,” 28 percent earned a “B,” 35 percent a “C,” 6 percent a “D” and 1 percent an “F.”

“The national numbers on death and harm in hospitals have alarmed us for decades. What we see in the new round of Safety Grades are signs of many hospitals making significant improvements in their patient safety record,” Leah Binder, president and CEO of Leapfrog, said in a release.

The assessment system assigns school-style letter grades to general acute-care hospitals. The hope is to determine a patient’s risk of further injury or infection if they visit a certain hospital.

Here are the full list of hospital grades.

Below are the hospitals in North Carolina that received “A” grades:

• Alamance Regional Medical Center, Burlington, NC — A
• Cape Fear Valley Medical Center, Fayetteville, NC — A
• Carolinas Healthcare System - NorthEast, Concord, NC — A
• Carolinas Healthcare System - Pineville, Charlotte, NC — A
• Carolinas Healthcare System - University, Charlotte, NC — A
• Carolinas Healthcare System- Cleveland, Shelby, NC — A
• CaroMont Regional Medical Center, Gastonia, NC — A
• Catawba Valley Medical Center, Hickory, NC — A
• Columbus Regional Healthcare System, Whiteville, NC — A
• Cone Health -Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital, Greensboro, NC — A
• Duke Raleigh Hospital, Raleigh — A
• Duke Regional Hospital, Durham — A
• FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital, Pinehurst, NC — A
• FirstHealth Richmond Memorial Hospital, Rockingham, NC — A
• FRYE REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER, Hickory, NC — A
• Haywood Regional Medical Center, Clyde, NC — A
• High Point Regional UNC Health Care, High Point, NC — A
• Hugh Chatham Memorial Hospital, Elkin, NC — A
• Johnston Health, Smithfield, NC — A
• Mission Hospital, Asheville — A
• Novant Health Brunswick Medical Center, Bolivia, NC — A
• Novant Health Medical Park Hospital, Winston-Salem, NC — A
• ONSLOW MEMORIAL HOSPITAL, Jacksonville, NC — A
• Park Ridge Health, Hendersonville, NC — A
• Rex Hospital, Inc., Raleigh, NC — A
• UNC Rockingham Hospital, Eden, NC — A
• University of North Carolina Hospitals, Chapel Hill, NC — A
• Vidant Beaufort Hospital, Washington, NC — A
• Vidant Edgecombe Hospital, Tarboro, NC — A
• Vidant Roanoke-Chowan Hospital, Ahoskie, NC — A
• Wesley Long Community, Greensboro, NC — A

Among the findings nationally, five hospitals that received an “A” grade for the first time this year previously received an “F” grade, the group said, and 46 hospitals earned an “A” for the first time since the grading system began six years ago.

Leapfrog said its analysis showed 89 hospitals that had previously received “D” or “F” ratings had improved to an “A” this year.

Rhode Island, Hawaii, Wisconsin and Idaho all previously ranked near the bottom of the state rankings with low percentages of “A” hospitals, but now all rank in the top 10.

Here are some of the other findings:

• The five states with the highest percentage of “A” hospitals this spring are Hawaii, Idaho, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Virginia
• Ten states have hospitals with “F” grades are California, the District of Columbia, Florida, Iowa, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey and New York

Leapfrog says you shouldn’t refuse emergency care because of a bad safety grade. They’re meant to be used as a guide for planned events and a research tool for potential emergencies.

Patch reporters Dan Hampton and Feroze Dhanoa contributed to this report.

Photo via Shutterstock