Hospitals in Tennessee are generally pretty good at protecting patients from injuries, accidents and infections, according to a new hospital safety report card from the nonprofit Leapfrog Group. It gave most facilities in the state As and Bs. But it did fail one: Nashville General Hospital.
The facility’s score was bumped down in part because it had higher-than-average rates of patients falling and getting infections in the blood and urinary tract.
The grades on this biannual report are intended to help hospitals improve, says Missy Danforth, who oversees hospital ratings for the Leapfrog Group.
“Every hospital I talk to — whether it’s an A or an F hospital — they all have some things to improve on, and a lot of times they have some things in place to get better,” she says.
Indeed, a spokeswoman for Nashville General says the hospital is aware of its relatively high infection rate, and it’s participating in a national quality improvement program to monitor it. The Metro-funded hospital has also started using new devices that disinfect IVs better.
Nashville General has had no bloodstream infections since January of this year,
which is after the data for the study was collected.
The data measured in the report comes in part from publicly available information that hospitals must disclose for federal Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, and in part from a survey the hospitals fill out voluntarily.
The fact that Nashville General Hospital disclosed information about its safety is a good sign, says Danforth.
“One of the things that’s interesting about this hospital is, they’re reporting on all the measures. They’re not trying to hide any of their data. So even though it’s not perfect, they’re still putting it out there,” she says. “Those are the hospitals that Leapfrog [Group] always has a lot of confidence in to say, ‘They’re going to improve.'”
Overall, the report measured more than 2,500 hospitals nationwide. Only 34 had failing grades.
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