The Leapfrog Group, an independent national watchdog organization driven by employers and other purchasers of health care, has announced the Spring 2021 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades and once again awarded OakBend Medical Center an ‘A’ for achieving the highest national standards in patient safety.
“At OakBend we put the safety and health of our patients first. We have top notch safety and quality teams and use best practices and accredited sources to keep our processes safe and up to date, stated Marilyn Phillips, VP Administrator of OakBend Medical Center. “We pride ourselves on creating a safe environment for patients as well as staff and physicians. Safety is our top priority and as a hospital authority, we know it is our duty to provide the best quality of care possible and safeguard our patients.”
“We find that ‘A’ hospitals have strong structures of safety in place,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “These hospitals are continuously learning, monitoring data, and addressing areas of improvement. Straight “A” hospitals have shared how they were better prepared for COVID-19 thanks to their sustained leadership focus on patient safety as a top institutional priority.”
“Hospitals with a consistent pattern of protecting patients from errors, accidents, and injuries, like these ‘A’ hospitals, seem to have been more prepared when the pandemic hit,” Binder said. “For many, safety and quality are embedded in their daily work at all levels of the organization, which prepared them in turn to respond to the rapidly evolving pandemic. As a part of this culture, ‘A’ hospitals have consistently shown a commitment to their workforce, empowering them to ask questions and share safety concerns.”
The Safety Grade assigns letter grades of ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’ and ‘F’ to hospitals across the country based on their performance in preventing medical errors, infections, and other harms. Developed under the guidance of a national Expert Panel, the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses up to 27 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign grades to more than 2,600 U.S. acute-care hospitals twice per year. The Leapfrog’s grading system is peer-reviewed, fully transparent and free to the public.
To see more details on OakBend Medical Center’s performance, and to access consumer-friendly tips for patients, visit hospitalsafetygrade.org.
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