Thursday, April 30, 2020, 11:20 am News Flash Archive

Early this morning, the Leapfrog Group, a nation-wide non-profit healthcare safety and patient advocacy organization, issued its Spring 2020 hospital safety ratings. The report is being covered by leading national media outlets, including the Chicago Tribune, New York Newsday, and many television network affiliates and newspapers.

Greenwood Leflore Hospital received a "D" grade in the report, down from last Fall's grade of "C".

The report is based on the latest publicly available data from CMS, the federal agency that administers Medicare and Medicaid, as well as upon Leapfrog hospital surveys, which collect data from the hospital administrators themselves. The survey data was all collected before the COVID-19 epidemic took hold.

As first reported by The Taxpayers Channel last fall, Greenwood Leflore Hospital failed to reply to the Fall 2019 Leapfrog survey, resulting in several categories being excluded from consideration. It turned out that by not answering the survey, the Hospital's Fall 2019 grade actually improved to a "C" from the Spring 2019 grade of "D". See our reporting here:
Report: Greenwood Leflore Hospital declines to participate in national safety survey

The Taxpayers Channel asked Interim CEO Gary Marchand why the Hospital had not participated in the Fall 2019 survey, but he never responded to our questions. See
Did Hospital refuse to answer survey to hide negative safety scores?

After the failure of the Hospital to submit the survey became public, Marchand told the Greenwood Commonwealth that the failure was due to a misunderstanding by hospital administrators, but that a special task force had been instituted to make sure that accurate data was submitted to Leapfrog in the future.

This time around, GLH did submit the survey data to Leapfrog.

Based on 28 different measures, the report attempts to provide an overall measure of patient safety. According to Leapfrog, patients treated in hospitals rated "D" or "F" are twice as likely to succumb to "avoidable deaths" as those treated in higher-rated hospitals.

In Mississippi, 11 hospitals gained an "A" rating, 5 a "B" rating, and 15 a "C" rating, and 5 a "D" rating. There were no "F" grades among the 36 hospitals rated in Mississippi by Leapfrog.

Local Hospitals received the following grades:
A - NW MS Medical Center (Clarksdale)
A - Baptist Memorial (Oxford)
B - DRMC (Greenville)
B - Bolivar Medical Center (Cleveland)
C - UMMC Grenada
D - Greenwood Leflore Hospital

Baptist Medical Center in Jackson received a B grade, while St. Dominic and University Medical Center received C grades.

According to the safety report, GLH scored below average in a number of critical areas, including:

• blood infections
• C. diff. infections
• surgical site infections after colon surgery
• serious breathing problems
• safe medication administration
• hand washing
• communication about medicines
• communication about discharge
• staff working together to prevent errors
• dangerous bed sores
• track and reduce risks to patients
• effective leadership to prevent errors
• enough qualified nurses
• specially trained doctors care for ICU patients
• communication with nurses
• responsiveness by staff to patient concerns

GLH received higher than average marks in the following areas:

• MRSA infections
• urinary tract infections
• dangerous objects left in patient
• surgical wound splits open
• collapsed lungs
• dangerous blood clots
• accidental cuts and tears
• doctors order medications through a computer
• patient falls and injuries
• air bubbles in the blood
• communication with doctors

Leapfrog has overwritten the Spring 2020 report and it is no longer available. The entire study results for GLH may be viewed here: GLH Hospital Safety Results, Spring 2020

For complete coverage of these and other hospital milestones, please go here: Taxpayers Channel coverage of Greenwood Leflore Hospital's downfall.

John Pittman Hey
The Taxpayers Channel

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