Leapfrog hospital grades: Halifax Health receives D ratings; AdventHealth sees a few drops

The Leapfrog Group released its spring hospital safety ratings, showing a mixed bag of results for local facilities.

Of the five AdventHealth locations in Volusia and Flagler counties, the Daytona Beach, DeLand and Orange City campuses remained steady with A grades, while New Smyrna Beach’s campus dropped to a B and Palm Coast’s went from B to C.

Halifax Health hospitals in Daytona Beach and Port Orange received D ratings, which is consistent with their grades from November 2022.

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The Leapfrog Group is a Washington, D.C.-based national nonprofit organization that’s been issuing letter grades to hospitals based on safety and quality since 2012. The grades are based on a hospital’s performance in preventing medical errors, injuries, accidents, infections and other harms to patients in their care. The group releases two grades per year, one in the spring and one in the fall, and it is considered a tougher grader than the federal government, which doesn’t issue failing marks.

Out of 3,000 general hospitals surveyed nationwide, 29% received an A; 26% received a B; 39% received a C; 6% received a D; and less than 1% received an F.

In spring 2022, 33% received an A; 24% received a B; 36% received a C; 7% received a D; and less than 1% received an F.

Halifax Health locations remain in lower grade range

Both Halifax Health hospitals in Daytona Beach and Port Orange received low grades once again. The former received its fourth consecutive D, while the latter received its second consecutive D after two previous F ratings.

Hospital spokesman John Guthrie had previously told The News-Journal that Halifax Health does not agree with Leapfrog’s methodology.

“Overall, we do not subscribe to the Leapfrog methodology and don’t believe it provides an accurate picture of care,” Guthrie said last spring. “We are green in all the areas we should be. The bottom line is that people shouldn't choose their health care or hospital based on a grade."

These “green areas” refer to the “infections” and “problems with surgery” sections of the evaluation, where Halifax Health’s Daytona Beach campus scored “better than average” in 11 out of 13 metrics, “average” in one metric and “worse than average” in another.

Data for the “infections” section of the Port Orange campus for four of the metrics − MRSA bacteria, blood, urinary tract and the surgical site after colon surgery – was “unavailable,” according to Leapfrog. The same happened last year.

Alberto Tineo, senior vice president and hospital chief operating officer for Halifax Health, explained last year that these values should indicate “over or more than one” in order to count, and the hospital did not have any to report.

The sections where both Halifax Health locations faltered most, according to the rating, were “safety problems,” “practices to prevent errors,” and “doctors, nurses and hospital staff,” with 11 “below average” scores in 11 of 19 metrics.

Halifax Health did not return a request for comment on this year’s ratings.

How did Volusia and Flagler AdventHealth locations do?

The nonprofit’s grading system utilizes up to 32 national patient safety metrics from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Leapfrog Hospital Survey and information from other supplemental data sources.

It divides these metrics into two sections: Process measures (which include errors, accidents and injuries that a hospital has publicly reported), and outcome measures (which include the management structures and procedures a hospital has in place to protect patients from errors, accidents and injuries).

With yet another A rating, AdventHealth Daytona Beach remained one of only 20 hospitals nationwide to receive the highest mark in every Leapfrog rating since 2012.

AdventHealth DeLand and Fish Memorial in Orange City also received A ratings.

"AdventHealth is proud that three of our area hospitals received an A rating in the newest Leapfrog Group patient safety scores," AdventHealth spokesperson Lindsay Cashio wrote in an email to The News-Journal. "This track record of success demonstrates our unwavering dedication to patient safety, and we remain committed to improving both patient safety and the patient experience across all of our hospital campuses."

The Palm Coast campus dropped to a C rating. It received an A last spring and a B in the fall.

It received 21 “better than average” scores out of 32 metrics, nine “worse than average” and two “average” scores.

The New Smyrna Beach campus received a B rating after five consecutive A ratings – it received its last B in May 2020.

The hospital received 20 “better than average” scores out of 31 metrics, nine “worse than average” and two “average scores. Data was unavailable for “death from serious treatable complications metric.”

"We appreciate the feedback represented by these scores and will learn from it as we work continuously to assess and adjust our safety processes," Cashio wrote.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Halifax Health, AdventHealth hospitals receive Leapfrog safety ratings