The Safest Hospitals In New Hampshire: New Rankings Released

NASHUA, NH — A number of hospitals in New Hampshire obtained high marks, however others did not fairly measure up within the Spring 2022 Hospital Security Grades report launched Tuesday by The Leapfrog Group, an unbiased nonprofit well being care watchdog group.

The most recent rankings replicate care throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The Leapfrog Group mentioned its and different teams’ analysis confirmed the pandemic reversed years of progress in affected person security.

The pandemic has had a unfavourable impact on “well being care supply at each degree and setting, from staffing shortages to elevated infections to the very care sufferers obtain,” based on the Grownup Affected person Expertise at Acute Care Hospitals survey, additionally launched Tuesday by The Leapfrog Group.

“The well being care workforce has confronted unprecedented ranges of stress throughout the pandemic, and consequently, sufferers’ expertise with their care seems to have suffered,” Leapfrog Group president and CEO Leah Binder mentioned in a information launch. “We commend the workforce for his or her heroic efforts these previous few years and now strongly urge hospital management to recommit to improved care — from communication to responsiveness — and get again on observe with affected person security outcomes.”

In New Hampshire, 4 hospitals obtained an “A” grade, 4 hospitals obtained a “B” grade, three hospitals obtained a “C” grade and two hospital obtained a “D” grade. No hospitals obtained an “F” grade. Whereas Saint Josephs’s Hospital in Nashua obtained a “B,” Southern New Hampshire Medical Middle obtained a “D” and didn’t instantly return Patch’s request for feedback; we’ll replace this story if we hear again.

Listed here are the rankings, based on Leapfrog:

A

D

The letter grades assigned to almost 3,000 U.S common hospitals had been primarily based on greater than 30 measures of affected person security. Leapfrog says its hospital score system is the one one within the nation focusing solely on a hospital’s capability to guard sufferers from preventable errors, accidents, accidents and infections.

Included within the 30 are 5 that analysis has proven to immediately have an effect on affected person outcomes, however could be improved with higher communication between caregivers and sufferers — the variety of central line-associated bloodstream infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, infections from colon surgical procedure, MRSA (Staphylococcus) blood laboratory-identified occasions, and facility-wide inpatient diarrhea occasions.

When there’s communication about drugs, for instance, that may result in fewer hospitalizations for situations equivalent to sepsis and blood clots, fewer problems, and reduces within the incidence of respiratory failure, Leapfrog mentioned.

Among the many findings:

• Thirty-three % of hospitals obtained an “A,” 24 % obtained a “B,” 36 % obtained a “C,” 7 % obtained a “D.” and fewer than 1 % obtained an “F”.
• The states with the best percentages of “A” hospitals are North Carolina, Virginia, Utah, Colorado and Michigan.
• There have been no “A” hospitals in Wyoming, West Virginia, North Dakota or the District of Columbia.

To find out every hospital’s grade, a panel of medical specialists chosen 30 evidence-based measures of affected person security equivalent to postoperative sepsis, blood leakage and kidney damage. They then decided the burden of every measure primarily based on proof, alternative for enchancment and affected person influence.

Knowledge on every measure was collected by the Facilities for Medicare & Medicaid Companies. Data from the Leapfrog Hospital Survey, obtainable to all hospitals to finish, additionally impacts grades.

At the moment, Leapfrog doesn’t assign grades to navy or Veterans Administration hospitals, crucial entry hospitals, specialty hospitals, kids’s hospitals or outpatient surgical procedure facilities.

The Leapfrog Hospital Security Grade methodology has been peer-reviewed and revealed within the Journal of Affected person Security.

The total methodology for the 2022 Leapfrog Hospital Security Grade is out there on-line.