Four A’s and a B — that’s a pretty good report card for Kane County hospitals’ performance in the category of patient safety.

“But aren’t all hospitals safe?” you ask?

“Sadly, no,” says the Leapfrog Group, whose Fall 2015 Hospital Safety Score is considered the gold standard rating for patient safety.

The Hospital Safety Score grades hospitals on how safe they keep their patients from errors, injuries, accidents and infections. It is the first and only hospital safety rating to be peer-reviewed in the Journal of Patient Safety, is free to the public and designed to give consumers information to use for protecting themselves and their families when facing a hospital stay. Choosing a trustworthy hospital is necessary for your health as it allows you to stay there stress-free. However, it is still recommended that you get in contact with a Medical Malpractice Lawyer, just in case the worst should happen.

Presence Mercy Medical Center in Aurora sent out a press release emphasizing the achievement.

“We are proud of the dedication and collaboration among our talented clinicians and team members to keep a laser focus on patient safety. The Leapfrog Group is well-respected within the healthcare industry and this ‘A’ score reinforces the high quality care we deliver to our patients every day,” said Michael L. Brown, regional president and CEO, Presence Mercy Medical Center.

Rush-Copley did likewise.

“Rush-Copley is pleased to be recognized again by Leapfrog,” said Barry C. Finn, president and CEO of Rush-Copley. “Our team works constantly to raise the bar of quality of service and care they provide – care that’s delivered with the highest standards of safety and compassion.”

According to Leapfrog, you have a 1 in 25 chance of leaving the hospital with a new infection — and that’s just one of 28 performance measures used to rate a hospital’s safety.

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 28 measures are 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.

The good news for Kane hospitals comes on the heels of a report that ranks Kane County hospitals high in customer service.

To see Kane County hospitals full scores, visit www.hospitalsafetyscore.org.

About the Score

Hospital Safety Scores are assigned to more than 2,500 hospitals across the nation twice annually. The Hospital Safety Score is becoming the gold standard measure of patient safety, cited recently in MSNBC, The New York Times, and AARP The Magazine.

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 and 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 28 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.

About The Leapfrog Group

Founded in 2000 by large employers and other purchasers, The Leapfrog Group is a national nonprofit organization driving a movement for giant leaps forward in the quality and safety of American health care. The flagship Leapfrog Hospital Survey collects and transparently reports hospital performance, empowering purchasers to find the highest-value care and giving consumers the lifesaving information they need to make informed decisions. Hospital Safety Score, Leapfrog’s other main initiative, assigns letter grades to hospitals based on their record of patient safety, helping consumers protect themselves and their families from errors, injuries, accidents, and infections.

Read More

• 5 Kane Hospitals Rank High in Customer Service