Greenwood Leflore Hospital’s grade has fallen back to a “D” on a national survey of health-care safety.
That grade, on an A-to-F scale, puts the Greenwood hospital in the bottom 7% nationally of the more than 2,600 hospitals scored by The Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit organization that evaluates twice a year the quality and safety in U.S. hospitals.
The latest score, released Thursday, was first reported by The Taxpayers Channel.
The Greenwood hospital’s score was down from the “C” it had received last fall. In the two prior surveys, though, the grade was also a “D.”
Last year’s improvement drew questions because, during that grading round, the hospital did not participate in completing the survey that Leapfrog uses to calculate part of its scoring. The rating group also uses the latest publicly available data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency that administers those two government-sponsored health insurance programs.
The hospital did complete the survey for the Spring 2020 rating.
In a prepared statement released Friday, the hospital said that the Leapfrog report is a helpful tool in guiding ways the hospital can improve. The statement, however, did not address specific findings, saying that the hospital was still reviewing the report.
“Greenwood Leflore Hospital sees the value to our community in understanding the complexity of how health care services are delivered,” the statement said. “The hospital is constantly working on patient care processes to improve patient outcome and patient experience. Our objective is to improve constantly.
“We are evaluating the Leapfrog report and know that our most recent survey responses scored higher than previous surveys, but that outcome data used in the grading process reflects performance that is a few years old.”
Leapfrog scores hospitals on 28 different measurements covering five categories. Most of the data, it said, was taken from 2018 and 2019, although some of it dates as far back as 2016.
The Greenwood hospital again scored its highest marks in the surgical category, performing above average on five of the seven measurements used, including a perfect score on dangerous objects left in a patient’s body. (There were none.) The only surgical measurement for which it was graded below average was on post-operative serious breathing problems, the same area it had scored low in the fall.
Other areas where the hospital achieved perfect scores (no cases) were air or gas bubble in the blood and incidences of MRSA infection, a particularly difficult type of bacterial infection to treat.
On another infection measurement — infection in the blood — the hospital did not do as well, however, scoring twice as high as the national average.
The hospital’s lowest scores were in staffing and in practices to prevent errors.
Of particular note, given the COVID-19 outbreak, was the score of 15 on a scale of 0 to 100 for having specially trained doctors caring for intensive care unit patients. The average U.S. hospital score was almost 58.
Those who have the worst reactions after contracting the respiratory disease usually require intensive care treatment. The survey data, however, would not have included the 16-bed intensive care unit the Greenwood hospital created in March to exclusively treat patients infected with the respiratory disease.
Leflore County has had 17 deaths from COVID-19, the third-highest number in the state.
Of the 36 Mississippi hospitals rated by Leapfrog, 11 received an “A” grade, five a “B,” 15 a “C” and 5 a “D.” There again were no F-rated hospitals in the state.
The grades for hospitals nearby to Greenwood include:
• Northwest Mississippi Medical Center, Clarksdale: A
• Bolivar Medical Center, Cleveland: B
• Delta Regional Medical Center, Greenville: B
• University of Mississippi Medical Center - Grenada: C
North Sunflower Medical Center in Ruleville and Tallahatchie General Hospital in Charleston are not graded by Leapfrog. Because they are categorized as “critical access hospitals,” they are not required to publicly report their safety record. This, according to Leapfrog, leaves the rating organization’s experts with too little information to give such hospitals a grade.
• Contact Tim Kalich at 581-7243 or tkalich@gwcommonwealth.com.
