Six Texas Health hospitals and one joint venture received A grades for patient safety, according to national performance measures from the latest Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades, published by The Leapfrog Group.
The Leapfrog organization uses publicly available quality and safety measures, as well as leadership commitment to creating a safe environment for patients, to come up with the letter grades, which range from A to F.
“At Texas Health, patient safety is our top priority, and we’re constantly working to improve,” said Daniel Varga, M.D., senior executive vice president and chief clinical officer of Texas Health. “We have numerous programs in place to help us provide a safe and nurturing environment for our consumers, and many of our key performance indicators center on hardwiring care processes to avoid preventable infections.”
Making the grade
Texas Health hospitals that received A grades are:
- Texas Health Alliance
- Texas Health Dallas
- Texas Health Denton
- Texas Health Plano
- Texas Health Southwest
- Texas Health Stephenville
Texas Health Huguley, a joint venture, also received an A.
Five of the six Texas Health hospitals that were ranked A this time improved their scores from the spring ranking. Texas Health Stephenville returned to an A ranking after not having enough data to be considered last cycle.
Exceeding “A” rate
When considering Texas Health’s wholly owned hospitals, 46 percent achieved an A, while nationally, only 32 percent of the more than 2,600 hospitals scored were ranked A. Texas Health Specialty Hospital is not included in Leapfrog ratings. Individual hospital scores can be viewed on the Hospital Safety Score website.
“Recognition is helpful, but the real benefit has come from enhancing our own internal data reporting to help hardwire practices,” said Joan Clark, D.N.P., R.N., NEA-BC, CENP, FACHE, FAAN, executive vice president and chief nurse executive – and an RCB executive champion. “Adding additional reliability measures to the key performance indicators, such as compliance with Reliable Care BlueprintingTM modules, are one way we’re enhancing safety.
“Our care team continues to marry reliability and culture change to help improve the care we provide consumers each day.”
by Robin P. Loveman • Posted November 9, 2018
