Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center was the only hospital in the state of Nevada to receive an “A” grade designation out of the 19 hospitals reviewed in the New Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades. The spring 2017 review by The Leapfrog Group assigns A, B, C, D and F letter grades to hospitals nationwide and provides the most complete picture of patient safety in the U.S. The Leapfrog Group is a national patient safety watchdog.
“Quality and safety rankings continue to be a critical driver to our patient outcomes,”Helen Lidholm, CEO of Saint Mary’s Health Network, said in a press release. “We are committed to patient satisfaction and health care excellence. We want to ensure patients understand what these rankings mean and how they can utilize this information to choose a health care provider.”
National safety regulations for hospitals consider several factors including handwashing or use of sanitizer gel before and after every patient interaction, staff training to improve and recognize safety, elimination of infections in the blood during an ICU stay, and the close monitoring of patients who are at risk of falling. Additionally, Leapfrog data shows that a patient’s risk of death at a “C” hospital is 35.2 percent higher and 49.8 percent higher at a “D” or “F” hospital, as compared to a hospital that ranks at an “A”. Additionally, 33,459 lives could be saves annually if hospitals with grades, “B,” “C,” “D,” and “F” improved their patient safety.
Developed under the guidance of an expert panel, the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses 30 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign A, B, C, D and F grades to more than 2,600 U.S. hospitals twice per year. It is calculated by top patient safety experts, peer-reviewed, fully transparent and free to the public.
To see Saint Mary’s full grade, and to access consumer-friendly patient tips for staying safe in the hospital, visit www.hospitalsafetygrade.org or follow The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade on Twitter or Facebook. Consumers can also download the free Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade mobile app for Apple and Android devices.
About Saint Mary’s Health Network: Saint Mary’s based in Reno, Nev. is a 380-bed acute care hospital offering inpatient, outpatient and wellness services.
