Christiana Care earns “A” for patient safety

Christiana Care earns “A” for patient safety

Christiana Care achieved an “A” grade for hospital safety — the highest possible — in the Spring 2014 Hospital Safety Score from the Leapfrog Group, which rates how well hospitals protect patients from accidents, errors, injuries and infections.

Christiana Care is the only hospital in Delaware to earn this recognition.

Leapfrog is a national, nonprofit industry watchdog that measures and publicly reports hospital performance by assigning a letter grade of A through F, based on a hospital’s overall capacity to keep patients safe from preventable harm. The score includes 28 safety measures to produce the single letter grade.

“Patient safety is our driving priority and informs everything we do,” said Sharon Anderson, RN, MS, senior vice president of Quality and Patient Safety at Christiana Care. “This recognition truly belongs to our doctors, nurses and entire staff who dedicate themselves to partnering with our patients and their families to provide expert, safe care that our patients value.”

More than 2,500 U.S. general hospitals received safety scores in spring 2014, with about 32 percent receiving an “A” grade. The Hospital Safety Score is fully transparent, and its website offers a full analysis of the data and methodology used in determining grades.

“Safety should come first for our families when we pick a hospital, because errors and infections are common and deadly,” said Leapfrog CEO Leah Binder. “No hospital is perfect, but we congratulate the co-workers at Christiana Care for achieving an “A” and showing us that Christiana Care makes the well-being of patients a top priority.”

According to Leapfrog, the rating is the first and only hospital safety rating to be peer-reviewed in the Journal of Patient Safety. The score is free to the public and designed to give consumers information they can use to protect themselves and their families when facing a hospital stay.

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