Which Sarasota-Manatee hospitals earned A safety grades? Biannual report cards released
Sarasota Memorial Hospital, HCA Florida Sarasota Doctors Hospital and HCA Florida Englewood Hospital all earned A grades in the spring safety report cards released Wednesday by The Leapfrog Group.
Sarasota Memorial Hospital and HCA Florida Englewood Hospital continued streaks of consecutive A grades, while Doctors Hospital built a new streak with its second consecutive A grade.
The Sarasota Memorial Hospital Venice campus, which opened in late 2021, has not been in operation long enough to be included in the rankings.
DeSoto Memorial Hospital, which earned a B grade in the fall 2022 report card was not graded this spring.
The spring report card reflects data from 2022.
Related: 3 Sarasota County hospitals earn A grades in latest Leapfrog Group report card
It also shows a national trend of increasing risk of three healthcare-associated infections, including including Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus – commonly known as MRSA – central line-associated bloodstream infections and catheter-associated urinary tract infections.
To define the national trend, the Leapfrog Group compared this Safety Grade cycle’s infection data, which covered late 2021 and 2022, to the 2021 Safety Grades, covering the period immediately prior to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Those numbers spiked to a five-year high in hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Safety Grades also show a continued decline in patient experience measures, which are reported by patients and correlated with patient outcomes.
“This new update of Hospital Safety Grades shows that, at the national level, we saw deterioration in patient safety with the pandemic,” Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, said in a prepared statement.
The database of national safety grades is now available online at https://www.hospitalsafetygrade.org.
Area hospital results
Using the three healthcare-related infections highlighted by Leapfrog, even the best hospitals faced some issues, while lower ranked hospitals excelled in specific safety protocols.
Sarasota Memorial Hospital is one of the top ranked hospitals in the state and the only hospital in Charlotte, Manatee and Sarasota counties to earn a five star ranking from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services rating system, an achievement matched by only 8% of the 5,000 hospitals reviewed by CM this year.
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Still, SMH scored slightly worse than average in central line infections in the Spring 2023 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade database, and well above average in preventing MRSA and urinary tract infections.
Overall, SMH earned top marks, as noted by Lorrie Liang, president of the SMH-Sarasota campus.
“Sarasota Memorial has been the Suncoast region’s safety-net hospital for almost a century, and the commitment of our hospital staff, physicians and volunteers to this community has never been greater,” Liang said in a prepared statement. “Every member of our team plays a vital role in ensuring our health system continues to provide the top quality care its known for, and these honors recognize the personal dedication and exceptional service they provide every day.”
David Verinder, President and CEO of Sarasota Memorial Health Care System, credited the publicly elected Sarasota County Public Hospital Board for keeping to its longstanding public mission.
“One of the aspects that makes Sarasota Memorial special is the sense of community our staff has and the pride and mutual respect they show toward one another in doing the amazing work they do,” Verinder said in a news release. “We strive to create an environment where our talented team is given the support needed to deliver top notch results.
“I am regularly blown away by stories of our staff going above and beyond in service of our community. This level of personal commitment shows in our results and I am glad the challenging work of our staff has been consistently recognized by CMS and The Leapfrog Group.”
HCA Sarasota Doctors Hospital scored above average in preventing MRSA infections and among the best hospitals in preventing central line and catheter-related urinary tract infections.
Robert Meade, CEO of HCA Florida Sarasota Doctors Hospital, noted in a prepared statement that medical professionals at Doctors treated the first hospitalized COVID-19 patient in the state, “So our caregivers were at the forefront of the pandemic from day one.
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“Throughout all the challenges we focused on providing safe and compassionate care for our patients, their families and our fellow caregivers,” he added.” I am grateful for our team and what they do every day to serve our community.”
For HCA Florida Englewood Hospital, the infection rates for MRSA, central line blood infections and catheter-related urinary tract infections were not available.
The hospital opened an expanded emergency department late last year.
Overall, Englewood notched its 22nd straight A grade.
“Achieving 22 straight A’s for patient safety reflects the work of our physicians and caregivers who show up for our patients with exceptional care every day. Patient safety is at the heart of our commitment to providing high-quality care,” HCA Florida Englewood Hospital CEO Steve Young said in a prepared statement. “We foster a culture of safety by involving every member of our care teams and leveraging technology to help us provide a secure environment for our patients and colleagues.”
In Manatee County, HCA Florida Blake Hospital and the Lakewood Ranch Medical Center maintained their B grades, though Manatee Memorial slipped from a C to a D in the post recent rankings.
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HCA Florida Blake Hospital scored below average in preventing MRSA infections but above average in preventing the central line and urinary catheter related infections.
Lakewood Ranch Medical Center scored among the best hospitals in preventing MRSA and central line infections but among the worst in preventing urinary tract infections.
Manatee Memorial Hospital scored below average in preventing MRSA and central line infections but above average in preventing urinary tract infections.
In Charlotte County HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital dropped from a B to a C, as did Shore Point Health Port Charlotte, while Shore Point Health Punta Gorda maintained its C grade.
Shore Point Health Port Charlotte scored among the best hospitals in preventing MRSA central line and urinary tract infections.
Shore Point Health Punta Gorda also scored among the best hospitals in preventing central line and urinary tract infections but had no available data on preventing MRSA infections.
HCA Florida Fawcett spokeswoman Alexandria Benjamin preferred to point to a separate ratings site, https://www.healthgrades.com when discussing how the facility approaches patient care.
“HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital is committed to providing our patients high quality healthcare services,” she said via email. “This is evident in our most recent national recognition from Healthgrades as America’s Top 50 Hospitals for Surgical Care.
“This achievement reflects the hospital’s outstanding clinical outcomes for surgical care and puts HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital in the top 5% of hospitals nationwide for surgical care. Recognitions like this are very important to us as we move forward with our safety agenda.”
However Fawcett scored well below average in preventing both MRSA and urinary tract infections but above average in preventing central line infections.
A biannual report card
Two times a year, the nonprofit Leapfrog Group scores hospitals on how well they keep patients safe from medical errors, infections, accidents and other harm to patients in their care.
It gives “A,” “B,” “C,” “D,” or “F” letter grades to hospitals across the country on more than 30 different performance measures, including rates of injuries, accidents, infections and systems hospitals have in place to prevent harm and medical errors.
This year, 29% of the hospitals received a “A,” down from 30% in the fall; 26% received a “B,” a 2% reduction from last term, while 39% received a “C,” a 3% increase, and 6% received a “D.” Less than 1% received an “F.”
The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is the only hospital ratings program based exclusively on hospital prevention of medical errors and harm to patients and assigns a letter grade to almost 3,000 hospitals around the country.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Safety report card grades released for Sarasota-Manatee hospitals
