SOUTHBRIDGE, Mass., May 8, 2013 — Harrington Hospital has received a Hospital Safety Score of A — the highest grade — in a survey of more than 2,500 acute-care hospitals nationwide conducted by The Leapfrog Group, a healthcare rating organization.
The Leapfrog Group rated the nations acute care (general) hospitals on how safe they are for patients. The score includes data that patient safety experts use to compare hospitals. Publicly available data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, The Leapfrog Hospital Survey, and secondary data sources are weighted and then combined to produce a single, consumer-friendly composite letter-grade score.
“Harrington always makes patient safety our top priority,” said Harrington President and CEO Edward H. Moore. “We are very pleased to be recognized for our efforts by The Leapfrog Group.”
Kathleen Davis, Vice President of Quality and Patient Safety at Harrington, said, “Our score is the result of the hard work of everyone who works at Harrington. Were proud to be able to provide safe care for our patients and a safe environment for our patients, staff and visitors.”
The Leapfrog Group calculated Hospital Safety Scores for hospitals nationwide for which there was sufficient publicly available data. Of the 2,514 general hospitals given a Hospital Safety Score, 780 earned an A, 638 earned a B, and 1,096 earned a C or below.
The latest Leapfrog rating is one of a number of quality and patient safety achievements at Harrington HealthCare System recently. Among Harringtons achievements are:
• Receiving a statewide award by an advisory panel to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) for the exemplary work of its TB Clinic.
• Receiving a SCORE award for ranking 6th out of 22 small Massachusetts hospitals for providing defect-free stroke care.
• Ranking among the top 2 percent of all hospitals in the country for short wait times, according to statistics compiled by an influential healthcare publication.
• Receiving an “A” grade in the two previous Leapfrog patient safety ratings of the nations acute care hospitals.
• Winning an award for “Highest and Most Improved” in a key stroke screening indicator — dysphagia.
“Hospitals like this that earn an A have demonstrated their commitment to their patients and their community,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “I congratulate Harrington for its safety excellence, and look forward to the day when all hospitals will match this standard.”
Calculated under the guidance of The Leapfrog Groups nine-member Blue Ribbon Expert Panel, the Hospital Safety Score uses 26 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to produce a single score representing a hospitals overall capacity to keep patients safe from infections, injuries, and medical and medication errors. The panel includes: John Birkmeyer (University of Michigan), Ashish Jha (Harvard University), Lucian Leape (Harvard University), Arnold Millstein (Stanford University), Peter Pronovost (Johns Hopkins University), Patrick Romano (University of California, Davis), Sara Singer (Harvard University), Tim Vogus (Vanderbilt University), and Robert Wachter (University of California, San Francisco).
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