Hospital report cards are out: How did yours rank?

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Everyone goes through it at some point: report cards. Students get them, schools get them, a state’s effort on human trafficking gets them. Heck, even restaurants get them, in a way.

It may surprise you to learn, however, that hospitals also receive report cards. In April, a Washington, D.C.-based national nonprofit organization called The Leapfrog Group issued its latest hospital report cards for almost 2,000 hospitals surveyed across the country during 2017.

Billing itself as “the nation’s gold standard in evaluating hospital performance,” Leapfrog metrics seek to rank things like the prevention of medical errors, instances of infections and other harms among patients in a hospital’s care on an A-to-F scale. Developed under the guidance of an expert panel, the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses 27 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign grades to about 2,500 U.S. hospitals twice per year. It is peer-reviewed, fully transparent and free to the public.

About safety ratings

Leapfrog is actually only one of many sources for information regarding hospital rankings. According to LaWanna Halstead, vice president of quality and clinical initiatives for the Oklahoma Hospital Association, Medicare’s Hospital Compare offers a reliable source of information because hospitals must report large amounts of data to Medicare.

“These many different scorecards often have very different results because they may be looking at different time frames, different measures, or may focus on putting more weight on certain outcomes and practices,” Halstead stated via email Tuesday.

Indeed, a search of all Oklahoma hospitals ranked by Medicare’s Hospital Compare tool reveals 10 locations with five-star ratings. These results, however, do not necessarily correspond with Leapfrog’s letter grades.

So while hospital ratings may be a good supplement to researching health care in your area, patients should go even further to ensure their safety once inside. From Halstead’s email:

Most importantly, patients should take an active role in their care. They should ask questions about the medications and treatments they are receiving. They should question the caregiver, including physicians, if they don’t see them wash or sanitize their hands when they enter the room. They should write down information, and it is always good for a patient to have a family member or friend with them to listen to treatment plans as an additional set of ears and eyes.

How did Oklahoma’s hospitals rank?

According to the Oklahoma Hospital Association, there are 156 hospitals in Oklahoma, but Leapfrog’s latest data include results from only 36 hospitals. A third of these (the largest segment) received C ratings, while just under 20 percent managed to achieve an A ranking. None of the Oklahoma hospitals included received an F.

A list of all 36 Oklahoma hospitals included in the latest Leapfrog rankings appears below, followed with a percentage breakdown by ranking:

To see full grade details and to access patient tips for staying safe in the hospital, visit HospitalSafetyGrade.org.

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