Clay hospitals get “B” grades for safety

HCA Florida Orange Park Hospital and St. Vincent’s Medical Center Clay County received grades of “B” in the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Guide for fall 2022.

Leapfrog says its safety grades are the gold standard measure of patient safety, cited in MSNBC, The New York Times, and AARP The Magazine.

“The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses more than 30 national performance measures from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Leapfrog Hospital Survey and information from other supplemental data sources,” the organization said. “Taken together, those performance measures produce a single letter grade representing a hospital’s overall performance in keeping patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade methodology, has been peer-reviewed and published in the Journal of Patient Safety.”

According to Leapfrog, the Orange Park facility scored above average in preventing MRSA infection, Clostridium difficile infection, sepsis infection after surgery, death from serious treatable complications during surgery, kidney injury after surgery, accidental cuts and tears during surgery, harmful events, dangerous bed sores, falls causing broken hips, collapsed lung, dangerous blood clot, air or gas bubble in blood, doctors ordering medications through computer, safe medication administration, staff working together to prevent errors, effective leadership to prevent errors, enough qualified nurses and specially trained doctors care for ICU patients.

HCA Florida Orange Park Hospital scored below average in preventing infection in the blood, infection in the urinary tract, surgical site infection after colon surgery, dangerous object left in patient’s body, blood leakage, serious breathing problem, patient falls and injuries, handwashing, communication about medicines, communication about discharge, communication with doctors, communication with nurses and responsiveness of hospital staff.

St. Vincent’s Medical Center Clay County scored above average in preventing Clostridium difficile infection, infection in the blood, infection in the urinary tract, dangerous object left in patient’s body, surgical wound splits open, kidney injury after surgery, accidental cuts and tears during surgery, dangerous bed sores, patient falls and injuries, air or gas bubble in the blood, staff work together to prevent injuries, effective leadership to prevent errors, enough qualified nurses and specially trained doctors care for ICU patients.

The Middleburg facility performed average in blood leakage, harmful events and handwashing, while scoring below average in MRSA infection, surgical site infection after colon surgery, sepsis infection after surgery, serious breathing problem, collapsed lung, dangerous blood clot, doctors order medications through computer, safe medication administration, communication about medicines, communication about discharge, communication with doctors, communication with nurses and responsiveness of hospital staff.