St. Anthony Hospital Gets High Mark In Leapfrog 2021 Grading

Lakewood CO

11 November, 2021

10:15 AM

Description

LAKEWOOD, CO — How safe is Centura Health-St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood? While you're likely in good hands, new safety grades released by a national watchdog group focused on improving health care safety show the facility might have room for improvement. The answer varies from hospital to hospital, but you more than likely can find at least one nearby facility where you're in good hands, according to new safety grades released by a national watchdog organization focused on improving health care in the United States. The Leapfrog Group on Wednesday released the fall 2021 Hospital Safety Grade, which assigns a letter grade to the nation's general hospitals based on how well they prevent medical errors, accidents, injuries, and infections that kill or harm patients. Centura Health -St. Anthony Hospital, at 11600 West 2nd Place, received a 'B' grade. This year's list reviewed just over 2,900 hospitals, the largest number of hospitals ever graded. "As the pandemic continues, we all have heightened awareness of the importance of hospitals in our communities and in our lives," said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, in a news release. "It is critical that all hospitals put patient safety first." Now we have more information on more hospitals than ever before, so people can protect themselves and their families," Binder said. Don't miss the latest news updates in Lakewood: Free Lakewood Patch Newsletters and Email Alerts | Facebook | Twitter Nurses, doctors and hospital employees across Colorado are overworked and exhausted as hospitalizations surge, state public health officials said. Hospital bed capacity has hit an all-time low of 759 available beds in our state and fewer than 100 ICU beds. But despite all the setbacks and struggles as the pandemic continues, more than two dozen Colorado hospitals received an 'A' or 'B' grade, and they deserve to be recognized. Here's a snapshot of how hospitals in Colorado were graded: Centura Health Castle Rock Adventist Hospital: 'A'2350 Meadows Blvd, Castle RockView the full score Centura Health-Avista Adventist Hospital: 'A'100 Health Park Drive, LouisvilleView the full score Centura Health-Longmont United Hospital: 'A'1950 Mountain View Avenue, LongmontView full score Centura Health-Mercy Regional Medical Center: 'A'1010 Three Springs Boulevard, DurangoView full score Centura Health-Penrose Hospital: 'A'2222 N. Nevada Avenue, Colorado SpringsView full score Centura Health-St. Anthony North Hospital: 'A'14300 Orchard Parkway, WestminsterView the full score Centura Health-St. Francis Medical Center: 'A'6001 E. Woodmen Rd., Colorado SpringsView the full score Centura Health-St. Mary Corwin Medical Center: 'A'1008 Minnequa Ave., PuebloView full score Community Hospital: 'A'2351 G Road, Grand JunctionView full score Delta County Memorial Hospital: 'A'1501 E 3rd Street, DeltaView full score Good Samaritan Medical Center: 'A'200 Exempla Circle, LafayetteView full score Lutheran Medical Center: 'A'8300 W. 38th Ave., Wheat RidgeView full score Platte Valley Medical Center: 'A'1600 Prairie Center Parkway, BrightonView the full score Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center: 'A'1719 E. 19th Ave., DenverView full score Rose Medical Center: 'A'4567 E. 9th Ave., DenverView full score Sky Ridge Medical Center: 'A'10101 Ridge Gate Parkway, Lone TreeView full score St. Mary's Hospital and Medical Center: 'A'2635 N. 7th St., Grand JunctionView full score Swedish Medical Center: 'A'501 E. Hampden Ave., EnglewoodView full score UCHealth Broomfield Hospital: 'A'11820 Destination Drive, BroomfieldView full score UCHealth Yampa Valley Medical Center: 'A'1024 Central Park Drive, Steamboat SpringsView full score Vail Health: 'A'181 W. Meadow Drive, VailView full score Boulder Community Foothills Hospital: 'B'4747 Arapahoe Ave., BoulderView full score Centura Health -St. Anthony Hospital: 'B'11600 West 2nd Place, LakewoodView full score Centura Health-Littleton Adventist Hospital: 'B'7700 S. Broadway, LittletonView full score McKee Medical Center: 'B'2000 Boise Ave., LovelandView the full score North Colorado Medical Center: 'B'1801 16th Street, GreeleyView full score North Suburban Medical Center: 'B'9191 Grant St., ThorntonView the full score Saint Joseph Hospital: 'B'1375 East 19th Ave., DenverView full score Centura Health-Parker Adventist Hospital: 'C'9395 Crown Crest Blvd., ParkerView full score Centura Health-Porter Adventist Hospital: 'C'2525 S. Downing St., DenverView the full score Colorado Plains Medical Center: 'C'1000 Lincoln St., Fort MorganView full score Denver Health Medical Center: 'C'777 Bannock St., DenverView full score Medical Center of Aurora: 'C'1501 S. Potomac St., AuroraView full score Montrose Memorial Hospital: 'C'800 S. Third St., MontroseView full score UCHealth Longs Peak Hospital: 'C'1750 E Ken Pratt Blvd., LongmontView full score UCHealth Medical Center of the Rockies: 'C'2500 Rocky Mountain Ave., LovelandView full score UCHealth Memorial Hospital Central: 'C'1400 E. Boulder St., Colorado SpringsView full score UCHealth Memorial Hospital North: 'C'4050 Briargate Pkwy., Colorado SpringsView full score UCHealth Poudre Valley Hospital: 'C'1024 S. Lemay Ave., Fort CollinsView full score Valley View Hospital: 'C'1906 Blake Ave., Glenwood SpringsView full score Parkview Medical Center: 'D'400 W. 16th St., PuebloView full score SLV Health Regional Medical Center : 'D'106 Blanca Ave., AlamosaView full score UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital : 'D'12605 E. 16th Ave., AuroraView full score "We recognize the importance of measuring and public reporting of quality performance and safety and we work diligently to continually improve," the Medical Center of Aurora said in a statement. "Our physicians, nurses, and colleagues are dedicated to providing exceptional care for our patients. We consistently focus on our clinical and operational performance, both of which are keys to a providing exceptional, high quality patient care. Additionally, we are deeply grateful for our physicians, nurses, and frontline providers who have demonstrated enormous resilience and a deep desire to care for our patients and communities over the past twenty months." How were the grades created? To determine each hospital's grade, a panel of medical experts selected 30 evidence-based measures of patient safety such as postoperative sepsis, blood leakage and kidney injury. They then determined the weight of each measure based on evidence, opportunity for improvement and patient impact. Data on each measure was collected through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Information from the Leapfrog Hospital Survey, available to all hospitals to complete, also affects grades. Currently, Leapfrog does not assign grades to military or Veterans Administration hospitals, critical access hospitals, specialty hospitals, children's hospitals or outpatient surgery centers. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade methodology has been peer-reviewed and published in the Journal of Patient Safety. The full methodology for the 2021 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is available online. Findings from the fall 2021 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade include: Thirty-two percent of hospitals received an "A" grade; 26 percent received a "B," 35 percent received a "C," 7 percent received a "D," and less than 1 percent received an "F." The five states with the highest percentages of "A" hospitals are Virginia, North Carolina, Idaho, Massachusetts and Colorado. There were no "A" hospitals in Delaware, Washington, D.C. and North Dakota. Six UCHealth hospitals were included among Colorado's lower grades in the report, and the health care system issued the following information in response: UCHealth is focused on quality and excellence, and we participate in several national quality programs and databases to compare our results against thousands of other hospitals. Those programs show that our quality ranks among the best in the nation with excellent patient outcomes.We have chosen to focus our resources, including the time of our quality department staff, on several quality programs including Vizient, IBM Watson, CMS and U.S. News and World Report. Leapfrog does not help us understand our performance in way that helps drive quality improvements for our patients. Leapfrog invites hospitals to submit data which is often unverified, and their data collection process is cumbersome and requires a significant amount of time. For hospitals that choose not to participate, Leapfrog may pull data from other sources, often resulting in incorrect or older data being compared against the unverified data self-reported from other hospitals. In addition, hospitals that do not participate in the survey don't even have the opportunity to achieve all the points – and therefore are scored lower than others. Our analysis shows that UCHealth hospitals' letter grades would be at least one or two grades higher if we fully participated in the Leapfrog survey. Here are a few specific examples of the inaccuracies in the Leapfrog grades: · Many of our hospitals received a poor grade on "Doctors order medications through a computer", but that's completely inaccurate. Our doctors absolutely order medications through a computer, and our IT infrastructure has even been recognized nationally as one of health care's most advanced.· We also get a poor grade on the safe medication administration – barcoding category. This says safer hospitals use bar coding technology effectively for all orders. But UCHealth hospitals absolutely use bar codes on our medications, which are matched to the bar codes on patients' wristbands. – and in fact, we even go beyond that and use hi-tech Alaris IV pumps that are wirelessly connected to the patient's electronic medical record, medication and the patient. This innovative technology confirms the medication, IV drip volume/time, patient, and then confirms that everything matches the physician's original prescription.· ICU staffing – Specially trained doctors care for ICU patients. This is another area that Leapfrog is reporting inaccurately. Our hospitals do have specially trained critical care specialists, intensivists and hospitalists caring for patients in our ICUs, yet Leapfrog gives us poor scores in this area. Unfortunately, Leapfrog shares incorrect information with the public, their comparisons are at best apples to oranges, and this could potentially confuse patients. A University of Michigan study looked at Leapfrog's methodology and found that its grades skews "toward positive self-report and bear little association with compulsory Medicare outcomes and penalties. With increasing compulsory reporting, Leapfrog (Safe Practices Score) seems limited for comparing hospital performance." Here's a some in-depth info on that independent study: Honesty may not be the best policy for hospital safety grades, study suggests.