Mercy, Maine Med and Area Hospitals Graded for Safety
by Tony Zeli
The Leapfrog Group announced its Fall 2016 release of the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade. This program assigns A, B, C, D and F letter grades to more than 2,600 U.S. hospitals bi-annually. Conventionally, it is considered to be the gold standard measure of patient safety in the United States.
Mercy Hospital, Mid-Coast Hospital, St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center and York Hospital all received an “A” grade, joining just thirty-two percent of US hospitals.
Unfortunately, Maine Medical Center received a “C” grade. In fact, this is the lowest grade among Southern and Central Maine hospitals. According to Leapfrog Maine Med was the worst hospital for accidental cuts and tears. For many kinds of hospital care, there is a chance that the patient will suffer an accidental cut or tear of their skin or other tissue. But at Maine Med 2.97 out of every 1,000 people discharged experienced accidental cuts and tears.
Other area hospital grades are below:
Mercy Hospital: A
Maine Medical Center, Portland: C
SMHC Biddeford Medical Center: B
Mid Coast Hospital of Brunswick: A
Central Maine Medical Center, Lewiston: B
St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center of Maine, Lewiston: A
York Hospital: A
The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is calculated by top patient safety experts, peer reviewed, fully transparent and free to the public. A full description of the data and methodology used in determining grades is available online at hospitalsafetygrade.org.
