The grand rapids area ranks well nationally in the latest report card on hospital patient safety.
Half of the eight hospitals in the grand rapids area scored an “a” grade in the leapfrog group’s spring report card. That ranks the grand rapids metropolitan area 19th on a list of the top 25 markets across the country for patient safety based on the percentage of local hospitals that received a top grade.
Grand rapids was the only metro area in michigan ranked in the top 25 markets and was tied at no. 19 nationally with three other metros: denver, colo.; hartford, conn.; and daytona beach, fla.
In the grand rapids area, trinity health grand rapids, holland hospital, and corewell health hospitals in greenville and zeeland received an “a” grade in the spring report card.
Beyond grand rapids in west michigan, “a” grades went to ascension borgess in kalamazoo, and corewell health’s hospitals big rapids, ludington and st. Joseph.
Four hospitals in west michigan earned a “b” grade: trinity health grand haven, and corewell’s butterworth hospital in grand rapids, blodgett hospital in east grand rapids, and lakeland niles hospital.
Amid the top-performing hospitals in the region were three in west michigan that earned a “c” grade: bronson battle creek, bronson methodist in kalamazoo, and university of michigan health-west in wyoming. Mclaren greater lansing and sparrow hospitals in lansing also earned cs.
Bret jackson, president of the economic alliance for michigan (eam) that works with the leapfrog group on the semiannual report card, notes that hospitals in the state that earned a “d” generally serve higher non-white patient populations. Hospitals that received an “a” grade tend to have a higher white population.
“sadly, in michigan, we find that hospitals who deliver lower patient safety scores service a higher percentage of a non-white identifying population, creating an urgency to improve health equity,” jackson said. “all patients, regardless of race, income, or socio-economic status deserve access to safe health care.”
Statewide, 25 of the 81 michigan hospitals graded in the leapfrog group’s spring report card received an “a” grade. Another 23 earned a “b,” 28 got a “c.” five hospitals earned a “d.” michigan ranked 20th in the nation with 30.9% of hospitals earning an “a” grade in the spring report card.
‘choice matters’
The spring 2024 report card shows “that hospitals overall in this area are better at keeping their patients safe, making patient safety a priority, and lower rates of patient safety events, errors, accidents, injuries and infections,” said katie stewart, director of health care ratings at the leapfrog group.
“what that means for the patient is that there’s more options in choosing a safe place for care,” stewart said. “hospital choice matters. Those hospitals are going to be better at preventing patient harm, reducing errors, etc., than the hospitals that are rated lower.”
Hospitals with “a” grades also recorded better scores for patient experience, an area that’s improved nationally after declining during the pandemic era, partly as visitor restrictions and other measures have eased, stewart said. Patient experience includes five measures such as patient survey responses in interaction with hospital staff and their responsiveness, communications about medicine and possible side effects, and discharge instructions.
The leapfrog group is a national patient advocacy group based in washington, d.C. That was founded by large employers. The group twice a year examines self-reported medicare data to evaluate hospital performance and issues letter grades on patient safety based on more than 30 metrics that include medical errors, injuries, accidents and infection rates.
“what we do know is that hospitals that are doing better in the safety grades, what we see most frequently is that it really is coming from the commitment from their leadership to make patient safety a priority,” stewart said.
The spring report card also shows hospitals nationally recorded lower infection rates that continue to decline after hitting a five-year high in the pandemic.
The leapfrog group estimates preventable medical errors in hospitals kill 200,000 or more people annually in the u.S.
In 2021, issues such as accidents, injuries and infections are the fourth-leading cause of death in america, behind covid-19, cancer and heart disease, according to the u.S. Centers for disease control and prevention. Unintentional injuries that year were responsible for 224,935 deaths, the cdc reported.
