Lovelace Women’s Hospital earns an ‘A’ for safety
BY JOURNAL STAFF REPORT
Tuesday, November 19th, 2019 at 12:02am
Lovelace Women’s Hospital earned an “A” Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade for Fall 2019, the first time it has received a Leapfrog rating.
The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is the only independent ratings program that focuses exclusively on how effectively hospitals keep their patients safe, making it the gold standard measure of patient safety focusing on patient infections, including falls and trauma, and preventable complications from surgery.
“The Leapfrog grade is important because it gives patients objective criteria they need to make a decision on which hospital is the safest,” said Lovelace Women’s Hospital CEO Sheri Milone. “Our entire hospital, from our physicians to our staff, is committed to patient safety and we pride ourselves on the adherence to the measures associated with the Hospital Safety Grade.
“We are so proud of the care our staff provides. Quality and patient safety are a constant focus, and it’s nice to be recognized for our hard work,” added Lovelace Women’s Hospital CNO Dawn Kregel.
The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade primarily consists of measures collected and publicly reported by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and includes some measures from the Leapfrog Hospital Survey for hospitals that report to Leapfrog. If a hospital does not submit a Leapfrog Hospital Survey, Leapfrog uses data from the American Hospital Association’s annual survey and IT supplement instead. Hospitals are not penalized for not reporting to Leapfrog.
Lovelace Women’s Hospital is one of two New Mexico hospitals to earn an “A” from Leapfrog. Las Cruces’ Memorial Medical Center is the other.