Some SC hospitals get A's for safety — but in Columbia, it's mostly C's, report card says
No Columbia or Lexington-area hospital received an A grade for safety scores in a biannual ranking by an organization that aims for transparency in the U.S. health system, and several received a C or D score.
Since 2012, the Leapfrog Group has published Hospital Safety Scores twice a year; once in the spring and once during fall. The rating is focused entirely on errors, accidents, injuries and infections that collectively are the third leading cause of death in the United States.
Based on this criteria, only two hospitals in the Columbia-Lexington area, Lexington Medical Center and Providence Health, were awarded a B, the highest scores among area hospitals graded by Leapfrog.
▪ Providence Health, improved its grade from C in the fall to B
▪ Lexington Medical Center, repeated its score from the fall ranking of B
Other Columbia-Lexington-area hospitals received C's or D's for the spring. Those include:
▪ Palmetto Health Baptist Medical Center Columbia, repeated its score from the fall ranking of D
▪ Palmetto Health Baptist Parkridge, improved its grade from D in the fall to C
▪ Palmetto Health Richland , repeated its score from the fall ranking of C
Only one hospital in the Midlands received an A score, while two others that had A grades in the fall suffered significant drops.
▪ Newberry County Memorial Hospital maintained its A ranking, which it has held since spring 2016
▪ Kershaw Health Medical Center dropped two letter grades from A to C
▪ Palmetto Health Tuomey dropped two letter grades from A to C
Overall in South Carolina, of the 41 hospitals that were ranked, 14 received a letter A. Two received a D, while none got an F.
Leapfrog graded more than 2,400 hospitals nationwide, and 30 percent earned an A, 28 percent earned a B, 35 percent a C, 6 percent a D and 1 percent an F.
“The national numbers on death and harm in hospitals have alarmed us for decades. What we see in the new round of Safety Grades are signs of many hospitals making significant improvements in their patient safety record,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of Leapfrog.
The grades are based on safety data and represent “a hospital’s overall performance in keeping patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors,” according to Leapfrog.
"Some people do more research on what car to buy than what hospital to go to for medical care," Leapfrog said in an explanation of its hospital safety grading. "The grade provides data and research to help you make informed decisions about a critical aspect of your hospital stay – safety."
SC HOSPITAL SAFETY GRADES
Tidelands Health Waccamaw Community Hospital B
Tidelands Health Georgetown Memorial Hospital C
McLeod Regional Medical Center of the Pee Dee A
Medical University of South Carolina University Medical Center B
Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital A
Carolina Pines Regional Medical Center B
KershawHealth Medical Center C
Regional Medical Center of Orangeburg and Calhoun Counties D
Palmetto Health Baptist Parkridge C
Newberry County Memorial Hospital A
Aiken Regional Medical Centers C
Mary Black Memorial Hospital C
Spartanburg Regional Medical Center B
Greenville Memorial Hospital A
St. Francis Hospital - Downtown A
SOURCE: hospitalsafetygrade.org
This story was originally published April 25, 2018 at 9:30 AM with the headline "Some SC hospitals get A's for safety — but in Columbia, it's mostly C's, report card says."