ACMC ranks in top-third of hospitals across the country for patient safety
Ashtabula County Medical Center’s dedication to patient safety was reflected in a sixth "A" safety grade recently given by The Leapfrog Group, a national, nonprofit organization focused on the quality and safety of American healthcare. The patient safety grade is based on a hospital's performance in preventing medical errors, injuries, accidents, infections and other harms to patients in their care.
Earning an “A” rating was made more difficult this year by the Leapfrog Group, which narrowed the score needed to achieve the highest rating. The rating also includes data compiled for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which also puts a high emphasis on patient safety in hospitals. Under the new scoring system, The Leapfrog Group ranks ACMC in the top-third for patient safety in hospitals across the country.
“We appreciate The Leapfrog Group’s focus on patient safety; because that is something we live every day. We met the higher standards because our caregivers ensure our patients are safe from the moment they enter our doors to the time they go home. You can count on ACMC to provide the highest level of care with the highest level of safety,” said ACMC President and CEO Michael Habowski.”
“An ‘A’ safety grade is an elite designation that your community should be proud of,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “The past year has been extraordinarily difficult for hospitals, but ACMC shows us it is possible to keep a laser focus on patients and their safety, no matter what it takes.”
ACMC scored high on The Leapfrog Group’s rating system in the areas of surgical safety, caregiver responsiveness, and infections. For example, ACMC ranked among the best hospitals in the nation for never leaving foreign objects in a patient’s body or allowing air or gas bubbles in the blood. ACMC ranked well-above average in categories such as fewer patient falls or injuries, C. diff. infections, and fewer patients with dangerous bedsores.
The Leapfrog Group identifies a difference between patient safety and quality. Safety focuses on preventing harm and avoiding bad outcomes, while quality focuses on the efficiency, effectiveness, or purposefulness of the care received. Safety makes it less likely that mistakes can occur. Put another way, quality is often subjective, whereas safety is measurable and can be quantified. That difference makes ratings by independent companies like The Leapfrog Group so valuable to patients when they are deciding where to go for care.
Developed under the guidance of a national expert panel, the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses a variety of measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign grades to more than 2,900 U.S. acute-care hospitals twice per year. The Hospital Safety Grade's methodology is peer-reviewed and fully transparent, and the results are free to the public.
To see ACMC’s full grade details and access patient tips for staying safe in the hospital, visit hospitalsafetygrade.org.