South County Hospital scores another A for patient safety

For the fourth consecutive year, South County Hospital earned a Hospital Safety Score of “A” from The Leapfrog Group, an independent, non-profit organization committed to driving quality, safety and transparency in United States health systems.

“This achievement speaks to the efforts of our staff and the dedication to delivering high quality healthcare,” said Lou Giancola, South County Health president and CEO. “We hold ourselves to the highest standards and it’s rewarding to be recognized for those efforts by organizations that monitor what hospitals across the country are doing.”

Leapfrog rates hospitals nationwide based on analysis of data on infection rates, surgical complications, use of best practices to prevent errors, the number of safety incidents, and the delivery of care by doctors, nurses and other hospital staff. Leapfrog analyzes and rates hospital performance every six months. 

 
 

South County Hospital is the only hospital in Rhode Island to receive the A grade for eight consecutive grade periods, which is equivalent to four years. Among the safety initiatives practiced by medical staff at South County are daily huddles, time-out, and Schwartz Center Rounds, all of which have been shown to enhance safety and hold staff accountable for quality care.

The Hospital Safety Score uses national performance measures from the Leapfrog Hospital Survey, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the American Hospital Association’s Annual Survey and Health Information Technology Supplement.

Taken together, those performance measures produce a single score representing a hospital’s overall performance in keeping patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors. The Hospital Safety Score includes 30 measures, all currently in use by national measurement and reporting programs. The Hospital Safety Score methodology has been peer reviewed and published in the Journal of Patient Safety.