Putnam Hospital Earns Top Safety Grade for Sixth Straight Year
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Putnam Hospital was among 33% of hospitals nationwide to earn a top safety grade from a national watchdog organization of employers and other purchasers focused on health care safety.
It is the sixth consecutive year the Carmel-based Putnam Hospital has been awarded the top safety grade from The Leapfrog Group, which judges a hospital’s ability to protect patients from preventable errors, accidents, injuries and infections.
“This is a nationally recognized score indicating the efforts a hospital puts forth to keep patients safe each and every day,” Putnam Hospital President Dr. Mark Hirko said. “This is a true validation of the many efforts made by all the staff at Putnam Hospital in the pursuit of a high degree of patient safety.”
Included in the more than 30 measures of patient safety used to calculate the Hospital Safety Grades are five measures of patient experience that research has shown have a direct tie to patient safety outcomes. For example, enhanced communication with providers and about medications can lead to lower rates of hospital-acquired conditions like sepsis and blood clots, fewer surgical complications, and decreases in incidence of respiratory failure.
The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is the only hospital ratings program based exclusively on hospital prevention of medical errors and harms to patients.
Recent studies have shown that the pandemic has reversed years of progress on patient safety efforts. The updated data included in the Safety Grade, some of which reflects a pandemic-era timeframe, heighten these findings and demonstrate how patient care worsened due to strains on the health care system and workforce.
“The health care workforce has faced unprecedented levels of pressure during the pandemic, and as a result, patients’ experience with their care appears to have suffered,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “We commend the workforce for their heroic efforts these past few years and now strongly urge hospital leadership to recommit to improved care—from communication to responsiveness—and get back on track with patient safety outcomes.”
Rick has more than 40 years’ experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, running the gamut from politics and crime to sports and human interest. He has been an editor at Examiner Media since 2012. Read more from Rick’s editor-author bio here. Read Rick’s work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/pezzullo_rick-writer/
