These Johnson County hospitals got ‘A’ grades for safety — and these got Cs and one got a D

You go to the hospital to get well, of course. But you might not realize that you’re taking a sizable risk of getting sick or injured while hospitalized.

Each year, for instance, one in 25 hospital patients contracts an infection. And a Medicare patient has a one in four chance of experiencing injury, harm or death when admitted to a hospital.

Those statistics are cited by the Leapfrog Group, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization that puts out twice-yearly hospital safety scores, rating the nation’s medical centers on such factors as the number of medical errors, injuries, accidents and infections.

The results are published at HospitalSafetyScore.org, where hospitals are assigned letter grades.

Each Johnson County hospital received a grade of either A or C, with no B’s, D’s or F’s. Several Kansas City-area hospitals, including the University of Kansas Hospital, got B’s, while a single metro hospital — Truman Medical Center Hospital Hill — got a D. No metro-area hospital got a failing grade on the survey.

The two Johnson County hospitals that got Cs — Menorah Medical Center and Overland Park Regional Medical Center — are part of HCA Midwest Health, which, in turn, is a unit of the Nashville, Tenn.-based Hospital Corporation of America.

Spokeswoman Christine Hamele responded by saying that “HCA Midwest Health prides itself in providing the best service and the highest quality of care to our patients and their families. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Score is one of many rating and ranking systems. For example, both Menorah and Overland Park Regional are pleased to be a ‘Top Performer’ for quality of care by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospital Organizations.

“While these Leapfrog results show data from as far back as 2013, we are focused on monitoring our current data and data from third-party sources to ensure we are providing the highest quality of care to the community today,” she said.

Shawnee Mission Medical Center got an A in the latest Leapfrog Group survey — its sixth consecutive top rating in the survey.

Lori Clayman, a registered nurse who is the hospital’s administrative director of quality, risk and safety, said the hospital views the Leapfrog ratings as “an internal marker for us as to how well we’re doing in this area” and as useful information for the public.

Clayman said Shawnee Mission Medical Center has written guidelines to ensure the safety and quality of patient care and has a variety of committees whose job it is monitor the same.

For instance, she said, the hospital is constantly reviewing the state of the art in catheters, intravenous devices and other invasive equipment for innovations that can help prevent the spread of infections.

MRSA, or Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, has gotten lots of publicity in recent years, but there are a number of so-called hospital-acquired infections to guard against.

“Hospitals have always thought about it,” Clayman said. “However, the requirement to report them … has increased the amount of reporting and transparency over the last several years.”

St. Luke’s South Hospital in Overland Park also got an A.

“Saint Luke’s South Hospital is honored to be recognized for demonstrating excellent safety outcomes,” President and CEO Bobby Olm-Shipman said. “While there is no single rating system that reflects the full picture when it comes to quality, safety, accessibility and high-value care, safety is certainly an important component of any approach. Each and every day we are proud to say Saint Luke’s is committed to providing the safest, highest quality care possible for our patients.”

Another hospital that earned an A in the survey was Olathe Medical Center.

“The Leapfrog report is one in a long line of local, state and national recognitions received by Olathe Medical Center for patient safety,” its president and CEO, Frank H. Devocellehe, said. “We are very proud of these honors. Our outstanding staff and physicians will never relax in their concerted efforts to continuously provide the safest environment possible."

At the University of Kansas Hospital, Dr. Timothy Williamson, vice president of quality, said the hospital’s ongoing efforts had improved its score from a ‘C’ in the last survey to this survey’s ‘B’ grade.

“However, we do not participate in Leapfrog or pay to fill out their surveys,” Williamson said in a statement. “These ratings tend to downplay academic hospitals, and do not differentiate patients who acquired infections at other hospitals and were transferred to The University of Kansas Hospital. We treat the sickest of the sick and regularly get transfers from hospitals with ‘A’ ratings in the Leapfrog survey. Still, we continue to work diligently to provide the best and safest environment for our patients.”

The Leapfrog Group, founded in 2000 by large employers and other purchasers, says its name comes from its goal of “driving a movement for giant leaps forward in the quality and safety of American health care.”

This story was originally published May 16, 2016 at 3:22 PM with the headline "These Johnson County hospitals got ‘A’ grades for safety — and these got Cs and one got a D."