Spring Patient Safety Grades Present Opportunities
MyMichigan Health’s Medical Centers in Alma, Alpena, Midland, West Branch and Sault Ste. Marie recently received annual safety grades from The Leapfrog Group, an independent national watchdog organization committed to health care quality and safety. The Safety Grade is a letter grade assigned to all general hospitals across the country and is updated every six months, in the fall and again every spring. For the Spring 2023 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, MyMichigan Medical Centers each received a ‘C.’ MyMichigan Medical Centers in Clare and Gladwin are not graded as they do not meet volume thresholds for scoring or are critical access hospitals.
“Although, nationally, the majority of hospitals graded by Leapfrog receive “Cs,” we recognize this is a significant change for some of our members from last spring when three of our five eligible hospitals received A’s,” said Kay Wagner, system vice president and chief quality officer, MyMichigan Health. “Receiving a “C” safety grade for our hospitals does not represent a change in the quality of care we provide to our patients but rather an opportunity to improve processes specific to Leapfrog requirements.”
Wagner continued, “The drop in letter grades for some of our members was due to a random validation process performed by Leapfrog in the fall of 2022 related to safe practices. It was in this process that MyMichigan Health learned of a key finding that did not meet Leapfrog’s specifications. Specifically, Leapfrog requires a safety survey of hospital employees and, although MyMichigan Health performed an employee safety and engagement survey that was approved and provided by a third party vendor, due to the fact that it was not administered in its entirety, it did not meet Leapfrog’s safety survey standard.”
To calculate safety grades, Leapfrog assesses hospital outcomes and patient experience. Another component of the Leapfrog grade is based on voluntary participation on an extensive survey of safe practices implemented by a hospital to prevent medical errors and other harm to patients. MyMichigan Health has committed to voluntarily reporting their safety practices through the survey.
According to Wagner, “Leapfrog has a random survey validation process, so hospitals are really on the honor system when they report on their safety processes. We are a transparent organization in which quality and safety has always been, and continues to be, a foundational element of our health system. We utilize excellence frameworks like Leapfrog, Magnet, and Baldrige to help guide us in continuous learning and improvement. Our spring grades do not reflect a change in our ability to provide high quality safe care, it merely presents an opportunity to further mature our survey process and our journey towards high reliability.”
MyMichigan Medical Centers in Alma, Alpena, Midland, West Branch and Sault Ste. Marie received excellent scores on measures that evaluated patient experience, hospital infection and complication rates. Performance on these measures is based on data provided by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. All the Medical Centers scored above Leapfrog average on the five patient experience measures included in the grade, and outscored other hospitals, or improved as a system, on seven of 10 infection and complication measures.
“Success at creating an excellent patient experience is more than a list of honors, scores and awards; the recognition is just a small part of the big picture of quality efforts that never stop. We continuously adjust our safety processes to exceed Leapfrog’s standards and we expect our grades will in fact rebound,” said Lydia Watson, M.D., president and CEO, MyMichigan Health. “Our patients are the number one reason we focus on quality. Seeing the improvement in our patient outcomes and patients reporting excellent experiences demonstrates the dedication by MyMichigan Health to provide outstanding care every day.”
Those interested in viewing the full Leapfrog grades may visit www.hospitalsafetygrade.org.
About The Leapfrog Group
Founded in 2000 by large employers and other purchasers, The Leapfrog Group is a national nonprofit organization driving a movement for giant leaps forward in the quality and safety of American health care. The flagship Leapfrog Hospital Survey and new Leapfrog Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) Survey collect and transparently report hospital and ASC performance, empowering purchasers to find the highest-value care and giving consumers the lifesaving information, they need to make informed decisions. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, Leapfrog's other main initiative, assigns letter grades to hospitals based on their record of patient safety, helping consumers protect themselves and their families from errors, injuries, accidents and infections.
