For the third time in a row, Saint Michael’s Medical Center was awarded an ‘A’ in fall 2019 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, a national distinction recognizing the hospital’s achievements protecting patients from harm and providing safer health care.
“Saint Michael’s is committed to ensuring our patients receive the highest quality and safest care available,” said Saint Michael’s CEO Robert Iannaccone, “We are extremely proud to receive national recognition for our efforts. Every member of our staff deserves credit for making patient safety and quality a top priority.”
The Leapfrog Group is an independent national watchdog organization driven by employers and other purchasers of health care committed to improving health care quality and safety for consumers and purchasers.
The Safety Grade assigns an letter grade to all general hospitals across the country based on their performance in preventing medical errors, injuries, accidents, infections and other harms to patients in their care.
“‘A’ hospitals show us their leadership protecting patients from preventable medical harm and error,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “It takes genuine commitment at every level – from clinicians to administrators to the board of directors – and we congratulate the teams who have worked so hard to earn this A.”
Developed under the guidance of a national Expert Panel, the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses 28 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign grades to more than 2,600 U.S. acute-care hospitals twice per year. The Hospital Safety Grade’s methodology is peer-reviewed and fully transparent, and the results are free to the public.
When Saint Michael’s was purchased by Prime Healthcare in 2016, the hospital was in bankruptcy and was rated a F from Leapfrog. Under Prime’s ownership, the 358-bed hospital has turned the corner financially while investing millions in new clinical equipment and other upgrades.
Saint Michael’s Chief Nursing Officer Nancy Bisco-Flora said Saint Michael’s benefits through its affiliation with an award-winning national healthcare provider that shares best practices with its member hospitals.
“Prime Healthcare provides a platform for its sister hospitals to continuously engage as one cohesive group,” Bisco-Flora said. “Through shared collaboration, quality improvement and patient safety initiatives are discussed and later advanced when we share those results at our hospital.”
Last week, Saint Michael’s was nationally recognized by Healthgrades as America’s Best 100 hospitals in three clinical specialties: cardiac care, general surgery and gastroenterology. It is the only hospital in Essex or Hudson counties to be recognized for three clinical specialties.
Saint Michael’s is also one of six hospitals in New Jersey to be rated a Five-Star Hospital by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in February. The rating is based on 100 rigorously tested quality measures at more than 4,000 Medicare-certified hospitals as well as Veterans Health Administration and Military Health System hospitals.
Read news coverage of Leapfrog: Newark Patch | TAPintoNewark | nj.com