The grades are in: How COVID-19 impacted patient safety in Delaware hospitals

Patient safety in Delaware hospitals is worse than almost 55% of hospitals nationwide, according to a new safety grade report released by The Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit that scores hospitals twice a year based on public data and surveys.

Delaware was one of only three states to receive no A’s.

Six of the seven Delaware hospitals graded were given a C, and only one — Bayhealth Hospital Sussex Campus — earned a B. It’s part of a larger downward trend in safety ratings across the state’s hospitals in recent years, with only St. Francis Hospital in Wilmington having consistently earned C’s.

However, the Delaware Healthcare Association, which provided a statement on behalf of all Delaware hospitals, said the latest safety grades were based on “distorted measure data.”

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Because the data came from early in the pandemic, which put a strain on all hospitals in the First State, DHA interim CEO Megan McNamara Williams said the grades were not an accurate reflection of typical patient safety.

Instead, McNamara Williams said, The Leapfrog Group should follow the example of other safety reporting organizations and wait to release judgments on health care until data becomes available that wasn’t severely impacted by COVID-19, as health care quality has since rebounded.

She pointed to a recent ranking from U.S. News & World Report, in which Delaware placed third in the nation for hospital quality and 12th for overall health care quality.

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“Delaware hospitals, like hospitals across the nation, are re-doubling our efforts to improve quality now and into the future,” she wrote.

Katie Burggraf Stewart, director of health care ratings at The Leapfrog Group, acknowledged that other hospitals across the country experienced a similar dip in ratings in the spring 2023 report. But at the same time, she said some hospitals’ scores stayed the same or even improved.

“Especially during a pandemic, when our patient safety infrastructure is challenged, it's even more important for consumers and for others and for hospitals themselves to have this information about infections and prevention of injuries and accidents,” Stewart said.

Still, she said it was “promising” that Delaware did not have any hospitals in the D or F categories.

How do the grades work?

The grades come from a comparison of scores across five categories: infections, problems with surgery, safety problems, practices to prevent errors, and doctors, nurses and hospital staff. Each of these is then broken down into individual components.

Though the majority of Delaware hospitals fell into the same grading category as 39% of hospitals nationwide, not all of the hospitals’ individual component scores were actually in the middle. Instead, most Delaware hospitals scored above average on certain metrics and below average in others.

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For example, TidalHealth Nanticoke has one of the highest rates of surgeons leaving dangerous objects in patients’ bodies nationwide. It also has the lowest rates of patients being injured from falling over and air or gas bubbles in the blood.

The data used to generate the scorecards comes from a variety of sources, Stewart explained, including public information reported by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Hospitals are also sent a voluntary survey from The Leapfrog Group, though not all choose to complete it.

What should you do with the scores?

The ultimate goal of the Hospital Safety Grade is to allow patients to select the best treatment options for them, Stewart said.

In larger states, the array of hospital safety scores tends to be more diverse, meaning prospective patients can easily find higher-ranking hospitals. But in Delaware, where all except one hospital received the same score, how does one make an informed decision?

Stewart said it can be helpful to look at the individual breakdowns of the score and to see how a hospital did in areas that are relevant to the services that one wants to get. Other important indicators are hand washing and measures to prevent infections.

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In the case of an emergency, Stewart said that going to the closest hospital is still the best option.

If a hospital does not have a grade on The Leapfrog Group’s website — typically because there isn’t enough available data — Stewart encouraged patients to raise safety questions to their providers and advocate for transparency.

“We need to have a more resilient (patient safety) infrastructure,” Stewart said. “We have seen some progress recently … but now is really the time to accelerate that progress.”

The latest Hospital Safety Grade reports are available online at hospitalsafetygrade.org.

Send story tips or ideas to Hannah Edelman at hedelman@delawareonline.com. For more reporting, follow them on Twitter at @h_edelman.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Delaware hospitals below average in patient safety, new report finds