Delaware ranked worst in US in hospital patient safety in new Leapfrog report

 Patient safety in Delaware hospitals is once again under scrutiny following the latest report from The Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit that scores hospitals twice a year based on public data and surveys.

As in past years, no Delaware hospitals have earned A's, sinking the First State to the bottom of the overall national rankings. Only five other states and Washington, D.C., failed to earn a single A.

"The fact that we have zero (A's in Delaware) just shows that there needs to be some more improvement," said Katie Stewart, director of Health Care Ratings at Leapfrog. "It starts with a commitment from leadership to put patients first and to make patient safety a priority."

The grades come from a comparison of scores across five categories: infections, problems with surgery, safety problems, practices to prevent errors, and doctors, nurses and hospital staff. Each of these is then broken down into individual components.

A lack of A's doesn't mean a lack of improvement, though.

TidalHealth Nanticoke, ChristianaCare's Wilmington Hospital and ChristianaCare's Christiana Hospital all improved from C's to B's in the latest ranking — a change that Stewart said was "really encouraging."

Bayhealth Hospital Sussex Campus maintained its B rating, while Bayhealth Kent Campus and Saint Francis Hospital maintained their C ratings.

Only Beebe Healthcare saw a lower grade from the previous ratings, dropping from a C to a D.

According to Leapfrog, Beebe performs worse than average when it comes to kidney failure after surgeries, post-surgical complications, bed sores, handwashing, specially trained doctors in the ICU and staff working together to prevent errors.

Beebe Healthcare Senior Vice President and Chief Physician Executive Dr. Paul Sierzenski said that while the hospital "recognize(s) the value of independent surveys and take every opportunity for improvement seriously," it does not feel that Leapfrog's score is reflective of their "commitment, standards, and current performance in patient care and safety."

At the same time, Sierzenski said the hospital is making an effort to improve its Leapfrog score moving forward.

"We are not satisfied with this score and are committed to continuous improvement," Sierzenski said.

Questions, concerns from healthcare organizations

Beebe Healthcare is not the only Delaware organization to question the accuracy of the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades.

Delaware Healthcare Association President and CEO Brian Frazee said the organization, on behalf of all member hospitals, "continue(s) to have concerns about Leapfrog's methodology."

DHA has raised similar concerns in previous years, pointing to the vast difference between Leapfrog's sub-par ratings of Delaware's hospitals and those of other groups like U.S. News and World Report, which ranked Delaware's hospital quality as No. 2 in the nation.

https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/health/2024/06/03/delaware-ranked-worst-us-hospital-patient-safety-leapfrog-report-christianacare-tidalhealth-beebe/73691355007/