Central Georgia's largest hospital, does a below-average job of keeping their patients safe from errors, accidents, injuries and infection.
That's according to semi-annual ratings released by a national health-care analyst.
The Leapfrog Group gave Medical Center-Navicent Health a C grade -- meaning their number scores rank below average nationwide.
In a statement in response, Navicent said those numbers are just one tool for evaluating quality and said some of the Leapfrog data may be outdated. They also pointed to ratings from a different group that listed them as a top 100 hospital for patient safety.
Other Central Georgia hospitals fared better: Dublin's Fairview Park, Coliseum Medical Centers, Perry Hospital and Coliseum Northside all earned As from Leapfrog.
Leapfrog says they compile the annual survey to help people make better choices about healthcare and to communicate with doctors and hospital staff about safety.
The score for Navicent's Macon hospital has fluctuated from year to year -- from a D in 2016, a C last year and then a B earlier this year.
The study ranked Medical Center Navicent Health poorly on these factors:
• Preventing the spread of MRSA (staph) and clostridium difficile (C. diff) infections. They said those can be caused by employees failing to wash their hands between patients.
• Deaths from serious treatable complications;
• Leaving dangerous objects in patients' bodies
• Safe medical administration -- for example, using bar codes to check prescriptions against patients' bracelets to prevent medicine errors
• Communications about medicines and discharges.
• Having specially trained doctors to care for ICU patients. Leapfrog says that can reduce death rates
• Communication with doctors and nurses and staff "responsiveness."
But Navicent got good grades for effective leadership, having adequate numbers of good nurses, hand-washing, policies, preventing various types of surgical problems and other categories.
Other area hospitals rated by Leapfrog:
Leapfrog says about 32 percent of U.S. hospitals earned an A, 24 percent a B, 37 percent a C and the rest D or F.
They say the most important factors are staff-handwashing policies, procedures to avoid blood infections and safety measures to prevent patient falls.
They say as many as 440,000 people die every year from hospital errors, injuries, accidents, and infections, and one out of every 25 patients develops an infection while in the hospital.
Navicent released the follow statement from Dr. Reg Gilbreath, their senior vice president and chief system of care integration officer:
“While safety and quality data scores can help healthcare consumers make important decisions about their care, patients should use all available resources at their disposal in order to make the most informed decision. The latest Leapfrog rating system is just one tool among many patients can use when choosing a hospital. There are a number of organizations that provide ratings and quality data, and these scores should be compared. The Medical Center, Navicent Health is deeply committed to quality and patient safety, as exhibited through our recent recognition from CareChex, a national quality and safety organization that named The Medical Center, Navicent Health a national ‘2019 Top 100 Hospital for Patient Safety’, and also recognized our hospital as number one in this market in categories including cardiac, neurological, pulmonary, stroke and trauma care. It is also important to remember that Leapfrog grades must be interpreted within context – for example, some of the data used is more than two years old and may not reflect a hospital’s continuous improvement efforts. We encourage healthcare consumers to compare data scores and also speak with their doctors, friends and family about the quality of care received at Navicent Health when making decisions about where to receive treatment.”
