For the second year in a row, Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton is among the top hospitals in Georgia for patient safety, according to a new report from the nonprofit healthcare research firm Leapfrog Group.
The hospital was among only 11 in Georgia to earn an “A” rating for patient safety.
“Once again, we see that our efforts at achieving the highest possible level of care are placing us among the nation’s top healthcare providers,” said Loy Howard, president and CEO of Tanner Health System. “We are proud that our commitment to being among the nation’s top 10 percent of healthcare providers continues to earn Tanner national distinction. We are grateful for the outstanding work that our medical staff and our team of healthcare professionals do to deliver this extraordinary level of care.”
The Leapfrog Group analyzed 2,539 hospitals from across the country to develop their Hospital Safety Score, providing each a letter grade based on how each scored on 28 measures of hospital safety. Those measures include preventing infections, errors, injuries and medication mix-ups. The firm used data from its own survey, as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the annual survey of the American Hospital Association.
Throughout Georgia, 20 hospitals earned B ratings, 30 earned C ratings, three earned D ratings and one earned an F rating. Georgia ranked 33rd out of 49 states and the District of Columbia (Maryland had no available public data to be scored), with only 17 percent of its hospitals earning an A rating.
The Leapfrog Group’s hospital safety scores grade general acute care hospitals on a range of criteria that determine how safe the hospitals are for patients. The scores provide a single, consumer-friendly composite score that is published as a letter grade.
Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton was the only one of the health system’s hospitals evaluated by the Leapfrog Group. The firm did not calculate grades for critical access hospitals, such as Tanner’s Higgins General Hospital in Bremen, or behavioral health hospitals like Willowbrooke at Tanner in Villa Rica. Tanner Medical Center/Villa Rica also was not included, as the facility lacked the volume to report sufficient data for the Leapfrog Group’s evaluation.
“Our emphasis on a team approach to care—with physicians, nurses and others at every level of the organization—means that we have multiple providers with an eye on each patient’s wellbeing,” said William Waters IV, MD, chief medical officer for Tanner. “This is an approach that’s catching on elsewhere in the country, but its early implementation here at Tanner has placed us at the forefront in terms of quality, safety and even patient experience and satisfaction.”
“At Tanner, it’s our goal to be in the top 10 percent of hospitals in the nation on measures of quality and patient satisfaction,” said Howard. “Every time another score or survey comes out, the bar is set higher. Hospitals throughout the country realize how important it is that they show sustained, quantifiable progress in addressing patient care. It’s something that our board, our leadership and our staff have understood for a long time: the better able you are to provide excellent care, the better you’ll be able to serve your community. Each year, hospitals are going to get better, so we, too, must continue to improve to maintain our place at the top. The competition isn’t getting easier.”
The Leapfrog Group is a national nonprofit organization established in 2000 to advocate for improved patient safety throughout the nation’s hospitals. The Hospital Safety Score is a public service available at no cost online at www.hospitalsafetyscore.org. A full analysis of the data and methodology used is also available on the Hospital Safety Score Web site.