How safe are Wichita hospitals for patients? See latest grades from watchdog report
A national watchdog group recently scored some Wichita area hospitals below average for safety metrics, including infection, patient falls and bedside care.
The Leapfrog Group is a nonprofit organization that provides ratings and safety data for hospitals, and it recently released grades for nearly 3,000 short-term, acute care hospitals across the country. The organization updates grades twice each year, once in the spring and once in the fall.
“The goal is to help consumers protect themselves and their families from the errors, injuries, accidents or infections that they might experience during a hospital stay,” Alex Campione, program analyst for Leapfrog hospital safety grades, said in an interview with the Eagle.
The spring 2024 grades report a reversal of an “alarming trend” of increasing health care-associated infections across the U.S., which were at a six-year high for the fall 2023 ratings.
Those infections have now returned to pre-pandemic levels, Campione said, and another safety measure also improved nationally this spring.
Patient experience metrics, which assess quality of nurse communication, doctor communication, hospital staff responsiveness, communication about medicine and discharge information, significantly improved in the spring 2024 grades across the U.S., though they remain “far from pre-pandemic levels,” according to Leapfrog.
“I actually think the patient experience measures are the most important,” Campione said.
Patient experience metrics show first-hand whether patients are getting enough time to discuss concerns with their doctors and whether they’re experiencing any neglect, Campione added.
Three Wichita area hospitals received A grades, while two received Bs. One hospital saw improved performance and one facility received a lower grade compared to the fall.
Leapfrog uses 22 metrics to evaluate a safety grade, including seven that are self-reported through the organization’s survey. Officials with Ascension Via Christi hospitals responded to Leapfrog’s survey while Wesley Healthcare officials did not.
“The survey is an extensive process, it’s a commitment that hospitals have to make to complete the survey. It’s not short,” Campione said.
Three-fourths of hospitals that are graded complete Leapfrog’s survey, Campione continued. Grades for the hospitals that don’t respond are calculated using past data or a model that estimates how they might have performed if they did submit the survey. Federal, publicly reported data is available for all of the hospitals and is used in the grading, and self-reported data goes through a multi-layer verification process to ensure accuracy.
Here’s how Wichita area hospitals performed in Leapfrog’s grading, plus how to interpret ratings and which areas should be most heavily considered.
Ascension Via Christi St. Francis
Spring 2024 grade: A
Fall 2023 grade: A
Spring 2023 grade: A
Here are the areas in which Ascension Via Christi St. Francis scored below average this spring:
Patient falls and injuries
Falls causing broken hips
Collapsed lung
Nursing and bedside care for patients (Ascension Via Christi St. Francis received a 15 out of 100, the worst score given to any hospital. The average was 74.69.)
Ascension Via Christi St. Francis scored above average on one out of six infection metrics, five out of seven “problems with surgery” metrics, three out of seven “safety problem” metrics, four out of six “practices to prevent errors” metrics and two out of six “doctors, nurses and hospital staff” metrics.
Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph
Spring 2024 grade: A
Fall 2023 grade: A
Spring 2023 grade: B
Here are the areas in which Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph scored below average this spring:
MRSA infection
Patient falls and injuries
Falls causing broken hips
Collapsed lung
Nursing and bedside care for patients (Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph received a 15 out of 100.)
A score for surgical site infection after colon surgery was unavailable. An unavailable score does not denote a lack of safety.
“Our team’s unwavering commitment to excellence has once again been recognized with an ‘A’ grade from the Leapfrog group,” Kevin Strecker, chief executive and ministry market leader for Ascension Via Christi, said in a May 1 press release. “This achievement is a testament to the dedication and expertise of our staff who have set a benchmark in patient safety and care.”
Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph scored above average on two out of six infection measures (data was unavailable for one metric), five out of seven problems with surgery metrics, three out of seven safety problem metrics, three out of six practices to prevent errors metrics and two out of six doctors, nurses and hospital staff metrics.
Ascension Via Christi St. Teresa
Spring 2024 grade: B
Fall 2023 grade: C
Spring 2023 grade: B
Here are the areas in which Ascension Via Christi St. Teresa scored below average this spring:
C. diff infection
Sepsis infection after surgery
Nursing and bedside care for patients (Ascension Via Christi St. Teresa received a 15 out of 100.)
Scores were unavailable for four infection metrics. Unavailable scores do not denote a lack of safety.
Ascension Via Christi St. Teresa scored above average on none of the six infection metrics (data was unavailable for four of these), two of seven problems with surgery metrics, three out of seven safety problem metrics, four out of six practices to prevent errors metrics and three out of six doctors, nurses and hospital staff metrics.
Wesley Medical Center
Spring 2024 grade: B
Fall 2023 grade: A
Spring 2023 grade: A
Here are the areas in which Wesley Medical Center scored below average this spring:
Safe medication administration
Communication about discharge (Wesley Medical Center received an 83; the average was 84.9.)
Specially trained doctors care for intensive care unit patients (Wesley Medical Center received a 5 out of 100, the lowest score given to any hospital.)
Communication with doctors
Wesley Medical Center officials declined to report metrics for “staff work together to prevent errors,” “effective leadership to prevent errors” and “nursing and bedside care for patients.”
Wesley Medical Center scored above average on four of six infection metrics, five of seven problems with surgery metrics, six out of seven safety problem metrics, one of six practices to prevent errors metrics and none of the doctors, nurses and hospital staff metrics.
Wesley Woodlawn Hospital & ER
Spring 2024 grade: A
Fall 2023 grade: A
Spring 2023 grade: A
Here are the areas in which Wesley Woodlawn Hospital & ER scored below average this spring:
Safe medication administration
Communication about discharge
Communication with doctors
Wesley Woodlawn Hospital & ER officials declined to report metrics for “staff work together to prevent errors,” “effective leadership to prevent errors” and “nursing and bedside care for patients.”
“Regarding the finding that Wesley Medical Center does not offer specialized physician care to its intensive care patients, the Leapfrog grade is extremely misleading since we did not participate in the Spring 2024 Leapfrog survey. In fact, Wesley Medical Center is the only hospital in the region offering 24/7 coverage by skilled intensivists in its ICUs. Less than 20 percent of hospitals in the United States offer intensivist coverage,” spokesperson Dave Stewart wrote in June 21 an email to the Eagle.
Wesley Woodlawn Hospital & ER scored above average on four of six infection metrics, five of seven problems with surgery metrics, six out of seven safety problem metrics, one of six practices to prevent errors metrics and one of the six doctors, nurses and hospital staff metrics.
How are hospital grades calculated?
Safety grades are calculated using up to 22 national safety measures from the Leapfrog survey, U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and other data sources. The full methodology is available online and is peer-reviewed and published by the Journal of Patient Safety.
Grades are composed 50% by process and structural measures and 50% by outcome measures. The scoring scales differ by the chosen measure.
In the spring 2024 grades, 29.13% of hospitals nationwide received As, while 25.9% got Bs, 37.2% received Cs, 7.4% received Ds and less than 1% were given Fs.
Kansas ranked 11th in the U.S. for states with the greatest percentage of hospitals receiving A grades, with 40.6% of facilities in the state earning the top grade.
How should you use these scores?
Leapfrog emphasizes you should not refuse emergency care based on hospital ratings. The group intends the scores to be used when planning things like childbirth, surgery referrals or chronic illness treatment.
The areas you should pay most attention to when choosing a hospital include hand washing, infection in the blood and patient falls, Leapfrog’s website says.
Leapfrog’s hand washing grade measures how well hospitals use five “best practices,” including:
“Monitoring, including monitoring proper hand hygiene technique
Feedback, including evaluation and use of compliance data
Training and Education, including demonstrations of technique
Infrastructure, including hand sanitizer dispensers
Culture, including leadership buy-in”
You should also consider how far off your hospital was from the average for any given standard. When evaluating a hospital, you can see the highest and lowest scores given, which helps in weighing a value. The “below average” category can include hospitals that scored 0.01 points under goal, along with facilities with the lowest possible score.
For hospitals that responded to Leapfrog’s survey, there’s often information available about which areas the hospital has improved in and which areas are not going in the right direction.
A hospital being ungraded does not denote a lack of safety. Ratings are often unavailable for facilities that decline to self-report, as well as smaller providers, children’s hospitals, surgical centers and critical access hospitals.
Where can you find more hospital ratings?
Leapfrog allows you to search for hospitals by name, location or state. There’s an online search tool where you can find information about more hospitals.
This story was originally published June 14, 2024 at 6:00 AM.
