Valley Awarded an “A” for Patient Safety
November 28, 2012
Ridgewood NJ, For the second consecutive time, The Valley Hospital was honored with an “A” for patient safety. Hospitals nationwide received Hospital Safety Scores of A, B, C, D, or F based on preventable medical errors, injuries accidents, and infections in a report released today by The Leapfrog Group, an independent, national not-for-profit organization of employer purchasers of health care.
Of the 2,619 general hospitals issued a safety score in today’s report, only 790 – roughly the top 30 percent – earned an “A.” Perhaps most significantly, only 453 hospitals – or just over 17 percent – have earned an A twice.
The Hospital Safety Score was compiled under the guidance of the nation’s leading experts on patient safety and is designed to give the public information they can use to protect themselves and their families. Today’s release is the latest update to the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Score, which was first released last June.
“We are pleased and proud to once again be among the select group of hospitals to have received an “A” for patient safety,” said Mitchell Rubinstein, M.D., Vice President of Medical Affairs, The Valley Hospital. “This top grade is a reflection and a result of our longstanding focus on and commitment to patient safety and quality care.”
“Hospitals like this that earn an A have demonstrated their commitment to their patients and their community,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “I congratulate The Valley Hospital for its safety excellence, and look forward to the day when all hospitals will match this standard.”
To see The Valley Hospital’s scores as they compare nationally and locally, visit the Hospital Safety Score website at www.hospitalsafetyscore.org, which also provides information on how the public can protect themselves and loved ones during a hospital stay. People can also check their local hospital’s score on the free mobile app, available at www.hospitalsafetyscore.org.
Calculated under the guidance of The Leapfrog Group’s nine-member Blue Ribbon Expert Panel, the Hospital Safety Score uses 26 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to produce a single score representing a hospital’s overall capacity to keep patients safe from infections, injuries, and medical and medication errors. The panel includes: John Birkmeyer (University of Michigan), Ashish Jha (Harvard University), Lucian Leape (Harvard University), Arnold Millstein (Stanford University), Peter Pronovost (Johns Hopkins University), Patrick Romano (University of California, Davis), Sara Singer (Harvard University), Tim Vogus (Vanderbilt University), and Robert Wachter (University of California, San Francisco).