Most Kentucky hospitals in national patient-safety ratings got 'C' grades again; state is 35th in share of hospitals with 'A' ratings

By Melissa Patrick

Kentucky Health News

Most of the Kentucky hospitals graded on a nonprofit group's twice-a-year report card for patient safety again got a C in the latest report. 

The Leapfrog Group, based in Washington, D.C., rates nearly 3,000 general acute-care hospitals based on how well they protect patients. Most of Kentucky's 126 hospitals are relatively small, so they are not rated by Leapfrog; it rated 62 Kentucky hospitals.

The group does not grade small hospitals with "critical access" status because they don't have to report quality measures to the federal government; nor does it grade specialty hospitals, government hospitals, or hospitals that don't have enough publicly reported data.

Leapfrog gave 'A' ratings to 10 Kentucky hospitals; Kentucky's percentage of A grades, 16.4%, ranked it 35th among states. That was up two slots from the last report, when it ranked 37th. Leapfrog gave Bs to 19 Kentucky hospitals, Cs to 27 and Ds to 5.  

The grades are based on more than 30 measures that indicate how well hospitals protect patients from preventable errors, injuries, accidents and infections. 

The spring 2024 report showed 92% of U.S. hospitals have seen improvements in at least one of three infections associated with hospitals. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) decreased by 30%, central line-associated bloodstream infections decreased by 34% and catheter-associated urinary tract infections decreased by 30%. This good news comes after a six-year high for those infections was reported in the fall 2022 report. 

"While today’s results are promising, patient safety remains a crisis-level hazard in health care. Some hospitals are much better than others at protecting patients from harm, and that’s why we make the Hospital Safety Grade available to the public and why we encourage all hospitals to focus more attention on safety,” Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, said in a news release. 

She added, "According to a summary of peer-reviewed research published in British Medical Journal, an estimated 250,000 people a year die of preventable errors and infections in hospitals, which makes patient safety problems the third leading cause of death in the United States." 

The spring 2024 report also showed some improvements on patient experience measures compared to fall 2023. The release notes that these measures worsened during the pandemic and have still not returned to pre-pandemic levels. These measures look at things that have a direct impact on patient safety outcomes, including nurse communication, doctor communication, hospital staff responsiveness, communication about medicine and discharge information. 

"Patient experience is very difficult to influence without delivering better care," Binder said, "so these findings are encouraging."

The Leapfrog site offers details on the measures for each hospital under the heading Infections. It also provides detailed information under headings titled Problems with Surgery, Practices to Prevent Errors, Safety Problems, and Doctors, Nurses and Hospital Staff. The information is provided in an easy-to-read, color-coded scale that indicates how the hospital is performing.

The report uses data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Leapfrog's own survey and other supplemental data sources. Leapfrog says hospitals are only graded if they have submitted adequate data for evaluation.

Top Scores

Hospitals getting As were Baptist Health La Grange, Baptist Health Lexington, Deaconess Henderson Hospital, Georgetown Community Hospital, Meadowview Regional Medical Center in Maysville, the Medical Center at Bowling Green, Saint Joseph-London, St. Elizabeth Healthcare-Edgewood, T.J. Samson Community Hospital in Glasgow, and TriStar Greenview Regional Hospital in Bowling Green.  

Screenshot of page for Georgetown Community Hospital

Georgetown Community Hospital received an A after getting six consecutive Cs.

Baptist Health Lexington has received an A grade for 13 consecutive grading periods. Deaconess Henderson moved up from a B grade in the fall 2023 report. The rest in this top group also received As in the fall. 

Shifts up and down

Four Kentucky hospitals moved down to a B after getting an A on the last report, including Norton Audubon Hospital, Norton Brownsboro Hospital, Norton Hospital and Norton Women's & Children, all in Louisville. 

Five Kentucky hospitals moved up to a B after getting a C on the last report, including Baptist Health Deaconess Madisonville, Baptist Health Richmond, Harrison Memorial Hospital in Cynthiana, Middlesboro ARH Hospital and the University of Kentucky Albert B. Chandler Hospital. 

Other hospitals with B grades are Baptist Health Louisville, Baptist Health Paducah, Clark Regional Medical Center in Winchester, Owensboro Health Muhlenberg Community Hospital in Greenville, Saint Joseph East in Lexington, St. Elizabeth Healthcare-Fort Thomas, St. Elizabeth Healthcare-Florence, U of L Health Shelbyville Hospital, UK HealthCare Good Samaritan Hospital and Blanchfield Army Community Hospital in Fort Campbell. 

Five Kentucky hospitals moved up from a D to a C: Hazard ARH Regional Medical Center, Jackson Purchase Medical Center in Mayfield, Jewish Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky River Medical Center in Jackson and UofL-Sts. Mary and Elizabeth Hospital. 

Three hospitals moved down from a B to a C: Kings Daughters Medical Center in Ashland, Monroe County Medical Center in Tompkinsville and Whitesburg ARH Hospital. 

The remaining 19 hospitals with a C all got Cs on the last report card too. 

Taylor Regional Hospital in Campbellsville moved down from a C to a D and Jennie Stuart Health in Hopkinsville moved up to a D after being the only hospital in the fall 2023 report to get an F. 

Other hospitals with D grades are Highlands ARH Regional Medical Center in Prestonsburg, Murray-Calloway County Hospital and Pikeville Medical Center. 

No Kentucky hospitals got an F on this report. 

Click here for a list of frequently asked questions about the survey. Click here to see if your hospital was graded. 

61 larger Ky. hospitals get mostly Cs in national patient-safety ratings, and one gets an F; raters warn infection rates remain high

This story has been updated to include Kentucky's healthcare-associated infection rate increases during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

Most of the Kentucky hospitals graded on a nonprofit group's twice-a-year report card for patient safety again got a C.

The Leapfrog Group, based in Washington, D.C., rates nearly 3,000 general acute-care hospitals based on how well they protect patients. Most of Kentucky's 126 hospitals are relatively small, so they are not rated by Leapfrog; it rates 61 Kentucky hospitals.

The group does not grade small hospitals with "critical access" status because they don't have to report quality measures to the federal government; nor does it grade specialty hospitals, government hospitals, or hospitals that don't have enough publicly reported data.

Leapfrog gave A ratings to four Kentucky hospitals; Kentucky's percentage of A grades, 6.6%, ranked it 46th among states. That was down 10 slots from the last report, when it ranked 36th. Leapfrog gave Bs to 15 Kentucky hospitals, Cs to 31, Ds to 10 and an F to one, in Hazard.

The grades are based on more than 30 measures that indicate how well hospitals protect patients from preventable errors, injuries, accidents and infections, and whether hospitals have systems in place to prevent them.

A Leapfrog press release draws attention to a significant national increase in healthcare-associated infections, reporting that the average risk of three HAIs – Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) and catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) – remain high after spiking to a five-year high in hospitals during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Comparing infection data from late 2021 and 2022 to the safety grades reported in 2021, which covered the period immediately before the pandemic, Leapfrog's analysis found that CLABSI increased 60%, MRSA infections increased 37%, and CAUTI rose 19%. 

During that same timeframe, in Kentucky, the CAUTI rate increased 33.7% and its MRSA infections increased by 65.06%, according to data provided by Leapfrog. The state's CLABSI increase was not statistically significant.  

“The dramatic spike in HAIs reported in this Safety Grade cycle should stop hospitals in their track. Infections like these can be life or death for some patients,” Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, said in the release. “We recognize the tremendous strain the pandemic put on hospitals and their workforce, but alarming findings like these indicate hospitals must recommit to patient safety and build more resilience.”

The Leapfrog site offers details on the measures for each hospital under the heading Infections. It also provides detailed information under headings titled Problems with Surgery, Practices to Prevent Errors, Safety Problems, and Doctors, Nurses and Hospital Staff. The information is provided in an easy-to-read, color-coded scale that indicates how the hospital is performing.

The report uses data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Leapfrog's own survey and other supplemental data sources. Leapfrog says hospitals are only graded if they have submitted adequate data for evaluation.

Top Scores

Hospitals getting As were Baptist Health Lexington, Clark Regional Medical Center in Winchester, The Medical Center at Bowling Green, and St. Elizabeth Healthcare-Ft. Thomas.

The Bowling Green hospital moved up to an A after getting Cs on the last 14 reports.

Screenshot of page for The Medical Center at Bowling Green (click to enlarge)

Baptist Health Lexington has received an A grade for 11 consecutive grading periods. Clark Regional maintained its A for two consecutive grading periods and St. Elizabeth Healthcare-Ft. Thomas has maintained its grade for three reporting periods. 

Shifts up and down

Seven Kentucky hospitals moved down to a B after getting an A on the last report, including Advent Health Manchester, Deaconess Henderson Hospital and Spring View Hospital in Lebanon.  

In addition, Louisville's Norton Audubon Hospital, Norton Brownsboro Hospital, Norton Hospital, and Norton Women's & Children's Hospital all moved down to a B, after getting As for seven straight periods. 

Three hospitals moved up from a C to a to a B: King's Daughters Medical Center in Ashland, St. Elizabeth Healthcare-Florence and Three Rivers Medical Center in Louisa. 

Other hospitals with B grades are Baptist Health Louisville, Meadowview Regional Medical Center in Maysville, Owensboro Health Muhlenberg Community Hospital in Greenville, St.Elizabeth Healthcare-Edgewood and U of L Health Shelbyville Hospital. 

Three hospitals moved up from a D to a C: Flaget Memorial Hospital in Bardstown, Jackson Purchase Medical Center in Mayfield and Taylor Regional Hospital in Campbellsville. 

Baptist Health Richmond moved down to a C after receiving five straight As. 

Eleven hospitals moved down from a B to a C:Bap tist Health Corbin, Baptist Health Deaconess Madisonville, Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center in Danville, Middlesboro ARH Hospital, Leitchfield's Owensboro Health Twin Lakes Medical Center, Lexington's Saint Joseph East and Saint Joseph Hospital, Bowling Green's TriStar Greenview Regional Hospital, University of Kentucky Albert B. Chandler Hospital, UK HealthCare Good Samaritan Hospital, and University of Louisville Hospital.

The remaining 15 hospitals with a C list all got Cs on the last report card too. 

Two Kentucky hospitals moved down from C to a D. Kentucky River Medical Center in Jackson got a D after receiving Cs on the last three reports, and Tug Valley ARH Regional Medical Center in South Williamson got a D after receiving four Cs and one B in the last five reports. 

Other hospitals with D grades are Murray-Calloway County Hospital, Pikeville Medical Center, Saint Joseph Mount Sterling, St. Claire Regional Medical Center and UofL Health-Mary & Elizabeth Hospital. 

The only hospital that got an F was Hazard ARH Regional Medical Center, down from a D on the last report. The last time a Kentucky hospital got an F on the Leapfrog report was in the fall of 2019, when Jewish Hospital received one. It got a C on this report card. 

Click here for a list of frequently asked questions about the survey. Click here to see if your hospital was graded.

Most Kentucky hospitals in national patient-safety ratings got C grades again; state ranks 36th among states in share of A ratings

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

Most of the 60 Kentucky hospitals graded on a nonprofit group's report card for patient safety got a grade of C.

The Leapfrog Group, based in Washington, D.C., rates nearly 3,000 general acute-care hospitals based on how well they protect patients. Most of Kentucky's 126 hospitals are relatively small and are not rated.

The group does not grade small hospitals with "critical access" status because they don't have to report quality measures to the federal government; nor does it grade specialty hospitals, government hospitals, or hospitals that don't have enough publicly reported data.

Leapfrog gave A ratings to 11 Kentucky hospitals, or 18.3% of the 60 it graded; Kentucky ranked 36th among states in the percentage of A grades, about the same as 35th in the last report. It gave Bs to 16 Kentucky hospitals, Cs to 23 and Ds to 10. 

The grades are based on more than 30 measures that indicate how well hospitals protect patients from preventable errors, injuries, accidents and infections, and whether hospitals have systems in place to prevent them. 

A Leapfrog news release notes that this is the 10th anniversary of the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade report and that an analysis of data gathered from 2012 to 2022 suggests there has been an improvement in patient safety over time, with a 27% decrease in falls and trauma, and a nearly 29% decrease in objects being unintentionally left in bodies after surgery. Further, it found decreases in infections associated with health care.

"For five of the outcome measures that can be tracked, these improvements saved an estimated more than 16,000 lives over the 10-year period," the release says.

The report uses data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Leapfrog's own survey and other supplemental data sources. Leapfrog says hospitals are only graded if they have submitted adequate data for evaluation. 

The Leapfrog site offers details on a number of measures, under headings titled Infections, Problems with Surgery, Practices to Prevent Errors, Safety Problems, and Doctors, Nurses and Hospital Staff. It also includes an easy-to-read, color-coded scale that indicates how the hospital is performing.

Screenshot of Leapfrog page for AdventHealth Manchester, which moved up  to an A from a C. 

High Scores

Hospitals getting As were: Advent Health Manchester; Baptist Health Lexington; Baptist Health Richmond;  Clark Regional Center in Winchester; Deaconess Henderson Hospital; Louisville's Norton Audubon Hospital, Norton Brownsboro Hospital, Norton Hospital, and Norton Women's & Children's Hospital; St. Elizabeth Healthcare-Ft. Thomas; and Lebanon's Spring View Hospital. 

AdventHealth Manchester moved up from a C on the last report, Clark Regional Center moved up from a B on the last two, and Spring View Hospital got its first A ever. The rest maintained their A grades. 

Baptist Health Lexington has received an A grade for 10 consecutive grading periods, and and Baptist Health Richmond has received an A for five consecutive grading periods.  

This is the seventh straight grading period that all four Norton Healthcare adult-service hospitals in Louisville have received an A.

“By working together and keeping the safety of our patients — and each other — at the center of all they do, Norton Healthcare’s employees consistently do the hard work that is necessary to receive ‘A’ Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades,” Russell F. Cox, president and CEO of Norton Healthcare, said in a news release. “Seven consecutive ‘A’ grades is no small feat, and I am honored to lead this exceptional team." 

Shifts up and down

After receiving four Cs in a row, preceded by nine Ds, University of Louisville Hospital rose to a B on the latest report.

"Improved data reporting, and other initiatives, implemented since UofL Health’s formation are beginning to show positive direction," UofL Health said in a statement. " As the first hospital in the system, UofL Hospital’s rising grade is an early indicator of more to come. . . . For our other facilities, the grades issued by Leapfrog reflect data that lags by several years and continue to include years of previous ownership groups." 

Other U of L hospitals graded by Leapfrog were UofL Health Shelbyville Hospital (B), UofL Health-Sts. Mary and Elizabeth Hospitals (C), and Jewish Hospital (C). 

Meadowview Regional Medical Center in Maysville moved up to a B after receiving two Cs in a row, as did Saint Joseph Hospital in Lexington, after getting four Cs in a row and Lexington's UK HealthCare Good Samaritan Hospital after getting five Cs in a row. 

Two Kentucky hospitals moved from an A grade on the last report to a C grade: Mercy Health Lourdes in Paducah and Monroe County Medical Center. Baptist Health Corbin moved from an A to a B.  

Baptist Health Paducah moved down to a C from a B, after having received only one C grade since fall 2018, and Owensboro Health moved down to a C after receiving only As and Bs since spring 2018. 

Other hospitals that moved from a B to a C were Frankfort Regional Medical Center and TJ Sampson Community Hospital in Glasgow. 

Five hospitals moved from a C grade down to a D grade. 

Flaget Memorial Hospital in Bardstown moved down to a D from a C, after having received all As and one B since Fall 2019. 

Harlan ARH Hospital moved down to a D after receiving seven Cs in a row, and Hazard ARH Regional Medical Center got a D after getting two Cs in a row. 

Jackson Purchase Medical Center in Mayfield moved down to a D after getting seven Cs in a row. 

The other five hospitals with D grades are Jennie Stuart Health in Hopkinsville, Murray-Calloway County Hospital, Pikeville Medical Center, St. Claire Regional Medical Center in Morehead, and Taylor Regional Hospital in Campbellsville. Each also got a D on the last report. 

Click here for a list of frequently asked questions about the survey. Click here to see if your hospital was graded.

Lexington nurse accused of killing patient worked at 2 hospitals

A Lexington nurse who was indicted Monday on charges of murdering a patient at Baptist Health Lexington had worked at the University of Kentucky's main hospital until the charge was filed, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports.

Eyvette Hunter (Fayette County Detention Center photo)

"Eyvette Hunter, 52, was charged with murder for allegedly committing intentional medical maltreatment, causing a 97-year-old patient’s death on May 5," Christopher Leach reports. "The patient, James Morris, died as 'a direct result' of Hunter’s actions on April 30, Lexington police said in a news release Tuesday. Hunter was arrested on Tuesday and is being held at the Fayette County Detention Center on a $100,000 bond, according to jail records."

UK spokesman Jay Blanton confirmed to Leach that Hunter was also working at the Albert B. Chandler Hospital as a traveling nurse, placed by an outside agency, from November 2021 to the date of her arrest. Blanton said she was immediately released from her duties after UK HealthCare learned of her suspension by the Kentucky Board of Nursing and the indictment Tuesday. 

Those records show that Hunter previously held nursing licenses in other states, but did not face discipline from boards in those states, Leach reports. Blanton and a Baptist Health spokesperson told Leach that Hunter had no maltreatment incidents before the one alleged. She was licensed as a registered nurse in Kentucky in 2018 and as a licensed practical nurse in 2007, state records say.

According to Hunter's suspension order, Morris, who was admitted to the hospital "after a slip and fall injury," was aggressive and agitated while in the hospital, Leach reports. Hunter requested medication to calm him down on April 30, which was denied. Hunter then allegedly withdrew a vial of lorazepam meant for another patient and appeared in Morris's room several minutes later with a syringe and "proceeded to administer something intravenously," the order says. 

Lorazepam is in a group of drugs called benzodiazepines, used to treat anxiety.

The Board of Nursing order suspending Hunter said another hospital employee saw what happened, asked Hunter what she gave Morris, and Hunter answered "something special." The order said his oxygen saturation equipment had been turned off and he aspirated food or medicine, developed pneumonia and was admitted May 3 to hospice care , where he died two days later. 

Leach reports the order says Hunter later admitted that she had given Ativan, the brand name for lorazepam, to Morris without an order "as well as subsequently feeding him."

Most Kentucky hospitals in national safety ratings got Cs again; state's percentage of A grades is 35th in nation, down from 30th

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

A nonprofit group that gives letter grades twice a year to hospitals for patient safety has again given grades of C to most Kentucky hospitals on its list. 

The Leapfrog Group, based in Washington, D.C., rated nearly 3,000 general acute-care hospitals. Most of Kentucky's 126 hospitals were not rated. 

The group does not grade small hospitals with "critical access" status because they don't have to report quality measures to the federal government; nor does it grade specialty hospitals, government hospitals, or hospitals that don't have enough publicly reported data.

Lepfrog gave A ratings to 11 Kentucky hospitals, 20% of the 55 it graded; Kentucky ranked 35th among states in A grades, down from 30th in the last report. It gave Bs to 14 Kentucky hospitals, Cs to 25 and Ds to five. 

The grades are based on more than 30 measures that indicate how well hospitals protect patients from preventable errors, injuries, accidents and infections. A Leapfrog news release says the latest grades reflect the impact of the pandemic on patient safety, with several measures showing a significant decline. The latest Hospital Safety Grades are published alongside a new report titled, "Patient Experience During the Pandemic: Adult Inpatient Care." 

The report uses data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Leapfrog's own survey and other supplemental data sources. Hospitals are only graded if they have submitted adequate data for evaluation, Leapfrog says.

The Leapfrog site offers details on a number of  measures, under headings titled Infections, Problems with Surgery, Practices to Prevent Errors, Safety Problems, and Doctors, Nurses and Hospital Staff. It also includes an easy-to-read, color-coded scale that indicates how the hospital is performing.

Screenshot of Leapfrog page for St. Claire Regional Medical Center in Morehead, which fell to a
D rating in the latest six-month report after getting seven Cs in a row. To enlarge an image, click on it. 

High Scores

Hospitals getting As were: Baptist Health in Corbin, Lexington and Richmond; Deaconess Henderson Hospital; Tompkinsville's Monroe County Medical Center; Louisville's Norton Audubon Hospital, Norton Brownsboro Hospital, Norton Hospital, and Norton Women's & Children's Hospital; Mercy Health Lourdes in Paducah; and St. Elizabeth Healthcare-Ft. Thomas. 

Of these, Baptist Health Corbin, Mercy Health Lourdes and St. Elizabeth moved up from a B rating in the last report. The rest maintained their A grade. 

This is the sixth straight grading period that all four Norton Healthcare adult-service hospitals in Louisville have received an A. 

Shifts up and down

After receiving Cs and one D since spring 2016, Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center in Danville rose to a B on the latest report. 

The Albert B. Chandler Hospital at the University of Kentucky also moved up to a B after receiving Cs and one D since fall 2018. 

Three others also moved up to a B, after getting a C last time: Baptist Health Deaconess Madisonville; Glasgow's T.J. Samson Community Hospital; and Leitchfield's Twin Lakes Regional Medical Center, which has joined the Owensboro Health system. 

Owensboro Health's main hospital fell moved from A to B, as did three others: Baptist Health Paducah; Bowling Green's TriStar Greenview Regional Hospital and Middlesboro ARH Hospital.  

Other hospitals with B grades are Baptist Health Louisville; Winchester's Clark Regional Medical Center; Frankfort Regional Medical Center; Lexington's Saint Joseph East; and St. Elizabeth Heatlhcare-Edgewood. 

Almost half the 55 Kentucky hospitals graded by Leapfrog got Cs on the latest report. Of those, most of them also got a C on the last report; nine moved down from a higher grade. 

After getting seven and three As in a row, respectively, St. Elizabeth Healthcare-Florence and Flaget Memorial Hospital in Bardstown fell to the C level. 

Seven hospitals dropped to a C after having Bs last time: Advent Health Manchester; Baptist Health La Grange; Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital in Somerset; St. Joseph Mount Sterling; St. Joseph-London; Tug Valley ARH Regional Medical Center in South Williamson; and U of L Health-Sts. Mary and Elizabeth Hospital in Louisville.

After receiving seven Cs in a row, St. Claire Regional Medical Center in Morehead fell to a D. The other four hospitals with Ds got the same grade on the last report: Murray-Calloway County Hospital; Hopkinsville's Jennie Stuart Health; Pikeville Medical Center and Taylor Regional Hospital in Campbellsville.

Most Ky. hospitals in national patient safety ratings got Cs again

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

A nonprofit group that grades hospitals for patient safety was able to provide scores for nine more Kentucky hospitals in its latest report, and again gave Cs to most of those it graded. 

The Leapfrog Group, based in Washington, D.C., rated more than 2,900 general acute-care hospitals, the most ever. Most of Kentucky's 126 hospitals were not rated, but those that were have most of the state's hospital beds.

The group does not grade small hospitals with "critical access" status because they don't have to report quality measures to the federal government, nor does it grade specialty hospitals, government hospitals, or hospitals that don't have enough publicly reported data.

Leapfrog gave A ratings to 15 Kentucky hospitals, or about 25% of those it graded, up from 24% in the last report. Kentucky ranked 30th in A grades, up from 33rd in the last report, issued in May 2021.  Leapfrog gave Bs to 17 Kentucky hospitals, Cs to 23, and Ds to four. 

The twice-yearly grades are based on more than 30 performance measures of patient safety that indicate how well hospitals protect patients from errors, injuries, accidents and infections. For the first time, the report includes performance grades for post-operative sepsis, blood leakage and kidney injury. 

The news release notes that post-operative sepsis can result in "suffering, disability and sometimes death for an estimated 160,000 people a year in the United States. It adds that sepsis in all settings kills over 270,000 people a year and is the costliest condition in U.S. hospitals. Further, it says that Black people are twice as likely as white people to be diagnosed with sepsis

The report uses data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Leapfrog's own survey, and other supplemental data sources. Hospitals are only graded if they have submitted adequate data for evaluation, Leapfrog says.

The Leapfrog site offers details on each measures, under headings titled Infections, Problems with Surgery, Practices to Prevent Errors, Safety Problems, and Doctors, Nurses and Hospital Staff. It also includes an easy-to-read, color-coded scale that indicates how the hospital is performing.

Screenshot of Leapfrog page for Hazard ARH Regional Medical Center,
which moved to a C rating after getting five Ds in a row. 

High scorers

Hospitals getting As were: Baptist Health in Lexington, Paducah, and Richmond; Deaconess Henderson Hospital; Flaget Memorial Hospital in Bardstown; Logan Memorial Hospital in Russellville; Middlesboro ARH Hospital; Monroe County Medical Center in Tompkinsville; Louisville's Norton Audubon Hospital, Norton Brownsboro Hospital, Norton Hospital, and Norton Women's & Children Hospital; Owensboro Health; St. Elizabeth Healthcare-Florence; and Tristar Greenview Regional Hospital in Bowling Green. 

Of these, Baptist Health Paducah, Deaconess, Owensboro and Greenview moved up from a B rating in the last report. Logan Memorial, Middlesboro ARH, and Monroe County were not scored in the last report. The rest maintained their A grade. 

Shifts up and down

After receiving Cs and Ds since the Spring of 2016, U of L Health - Mary and Elizabeth Hospital got a B on the latest report.

Four others moved up to a B, after getting Cs in the last report. They were Frankfort Regional Medical Center; Lake Cumberland Regional Medical Center in Somerset and Saint Joseph-East in Lexington.

Four moved down to a B, after getting an A on the last report: Baptist Health LaGrange; Clark Regional Medical Center in Winchester; St. Elizabeth Healthcare-Ft Thomas; and St Elizabeth Healthcare-Edgewood. 

Other hospitals with B grades are Advent Health Manchester; Baptist Health in Corbin and Louisville; Mercy Health Lourdes in Paducah; Paul B. Hall Regional Medical Center in Paintsville; Saint Joseph-London; Saint Joseph Mount Sterling; Three Rivers Medical Center in Louisa; and Tug Valley ARH Regional Medical Center in South Williamson. 

Again, most of the hospitals got Cs, and most on this list got a C on the last report. 

After getting five Ds in a row, Hazard ARH Regional Medical Center moved up to a C. 

Three hospitals dropped to a C, after having Bs on the last report: Baptist Health Madisonville; King's Daughters Medical Center in Ashland; and T.J. Sampson Community Hospital in Glasgow.

Three that got Cs on the last report moved down to a D. They are Jennie Stuart Health in Hopkinsville; Murray-Calloway County Hospital; and Taylor Regional Hospital in Campbellsville. Pikeville Medical Center got its second D in a row after a string of Cs. Only two Kentucky hospitals got a D score in the Spring report.

Most Ky. hospitals in patient-safety survey for national nonprofit's twice-a-year report card again get grade of C; fewer got As

By Melissa Patrick

Kentucky Health News

A nonprofit group that grades hospitals for patient safety gave fewer As in Kentucky than the last time, and again gave Cs to most of the 50 Kentucky hospitals that it evaluates. 

The Leapfrog Group, based in Washington, D.C., rated more than 2,700 general acute-care hospitals. Most of Kentucky's 126 hospitals were not rated, but those that were have most of the hospital beds in the state. 

The group does not grade small hospitals with "critical access" status because they don't have to report quality measures to the federal government, nor does it grade specialty hospitals, government hospitals, or hospitals that don't have enough publicly reported data. 

Leapfrog gave As to 12 Kentucky hospitals, or about 24 percent of those it graded, down from about 36% on the last report. Kentucky ranked 33rd in A grades, down from 21st in the last report, issued in fall 2020. Leapfrog gave Bs to 12 hospitals, Cs to 24, and Ds to two. 

The twice-yearly grades are based on 27 performance measures of patient safety that indicate how well hospitals protect patients from errors, injuries, accidents and infections. The report uses data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Leapfrog's own survey, and other supplemental data sources. Hospitals are only graded if they have submitted adequate data for evaluation, Leapfrog says.

The Leapfrog site offers details on each measures, under headings titled Infections, Problems with surgery, Practices to Prevent Errors, Safety Problems, Doctors, Nurses and Hospital Staff. It also includes an easy-to-read, color-coded scale that indicates how the hospital is performing.

Screenshot of Leapfrog page for Harrison Memorial Hospital in Cynthiana, which moved to a C from 
an A, shows detail for infection issues and tabs for other issues. For a larger version, click on it. 

The report notes that the data from the report does not yet reflect the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Leah Binder, president and CEO of the group. added that the scores in this report should serve as a proxy for the safety of care provided to Covid-19 patients in many ways, noting that hospitals with strong infection control policies in place are better equipped to protect their patients and workers.

"As we emerge from the pandemic, hospitals need to double down on safety, so they save lives, strengthen their organizations, and position themselves to withstand the next crisis. Putting safety first should be the priority of every hospital CEO," she said in a news release. 

High scorers

St. Elizabeth Healthcare-Edgewood has received As on every Leapfrog report card since spring 2014, the first year it was graded.

Other hospitals on the A list are: Baptist Health in La Grange, Lexington, and Richmond; Clark Regional Medical Center in Winchester; Flaget Memorial Hospital in Bardstown; Louisville's Norton Audubon Hospital, Norton Brownsboro Hospital, Norton Hospital, and Norton Women's & Children Hospital; St. Elizabeth Healthcare-Ft. Thomas; and St. Elizabeth Hospital-Florence.

All of the hospitals that got As in this report also got an A on the last report. 

Shifts up and down

Baptist Health Madisonville moved down to a B, after moving up to an A in the last following a string of Cs since fall 2017. 

After two As in a row, Mercy Health Lourdes in Paducah moved down to a B and Saint Joseph London moved back to a B, after moving up to an A in the last report. 

Two hospitals got Bs after not getting a score in the fall of 2020: King's Daughters Medical Center in Ashland and Tug Valley ARH Regional Medical Center in South Williamson. After having no scores reported in the fall, both hospitals had received Cs since fall 2018. 

Other hospitals on the B list are Baptist Health hospitals in Corbin, Louisville and Paducah; Deaconess Henderson Hospital (formerly Methodist Hospital of Henderson); Owensboro Health; T.J. Samson Community Hospital in Glasgow; and TriStar Greenview Regional Hospital in Bowling Green. 

Most of the hospitals got Cs, and most of the hospitals on this list got a C on the last report. 

Georgetown Community Hospital moved down to a C after getting a B in the last report and As since spring 2018. 

Harrison Memorial Hospital in Cynthiana dropped to a C, after getting all As and only one B in the spring 2020 report since fall 2018. 

Highlands Regional Medical Center in Prestonsburg moved up to a C after getting a D in the last report. Since spring 2016, this hospital has received either a C or a D on each report. 

After not being graded since fall 2018, both Jennie Stuart Health in Hopkinsville and Twin Lakes Regional Medical Center (now part of Owensboro Health) in Leitchfield got Cs. 

After getting six Cs in a row, Pikeville Medical Center moved down to a D.  Hazard ARH Regional Medical Center also got a D, its fifth in a row. 

Click here for a list of Kentucky hospitals and their Leapfrog safety grades. Click here for a list of frequently asked questions about the report.

More Ky. hospitals got As on safety-grade report; most still get Cs

By Melissa Patrick

Kentucky Health News

More Kentucky hospitals than the last time got a grade of A on a nonprofit group's rating of patient safety in hospitals, but for the fifth grading period in a row, most of the 45 Kentucky hospitals got Cs.  

The Leapfrog Group, based in Washington, D.C., rates more than 2,600 hospitals. Most of Kentucky's 126 hospitals were not rated, but those that are have a majority of the hospital beds in the state.

The group does not grade small hospitals with "critical access" status because they don't have to report quality measures to the federal government, nor does it grade specialty hospitals, government hospitals, or hospitals for which there aren't enough publicly reported data. 

Leapfrog gave As to 16 Kentucky hospitals, or about 36 percent of those it graded, up from about 26% getting As on the last report. Based on the number of hospitals with As, Leapfrog ranked Kentucky 21st among the states, up from 33rd in the last report. It gave Bs to eight hospitals, Cs to 19, and Ds to two.

The twice-yearly grades are based on 27 performance measures of patient safety that indicate how well hospitals protect patients from errors, injuries, accidents and infections. The report uses data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Leapfrog's own survey, and other supplemental data sources. Hospitals are only graded if they have submitted adequate data for evaluation, Leapfrog says.

The Leapfrog site offers details on each measures, under headings titled Infections, Problems with surgery, Practices to prevent errors, Safety problems, Doctors, Nurses and Hospital staff. It also includes an easy-to-read, color-coded scale that indicates how the hospital is performing. 

Screenshot of Laepfrog page for Whitesburg ARH Hospital, which got a C, shows detail
for infection issues and tabs for other issues. For a larger version of the image, click on it.

The news release from Leapfrog notes that the data from the report does not yet reflect the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We see in the news every day the extraordinary courage of clinicians and staff caring for patients stricken by Covid-19,” Leapfrog CEO and President Leah Binder said in a news release. “What’s less apparent — yet equally laudable — are the untold efforts behind the scenes to protect patients. Hospitals’ commitment to the fundamentals have saved lives too, like preventing infection, ensuring universal hand hygiene, and double and triple checking everything to avoid errors.”

High scorers

St. Elizabeth Healthcare-Edgewood has received As on every Leapfrog report card since spring 2014, the first year it was graded.

Other hospitals on the A list are: Baptist Health hospitals in La Grange, Lexington, Madisonville and Richmond; Clark Regional Medical Center in Winchester; Flaget Memorial Hospital in Bardstown; Harrison Memorial Hospital in Cynthiana; Mercy Health Lourdes in Paducah; Louisville's Norton Audubon Hospital, Norton Brownsboro Hospital, Norton Hospital, and Norton Women's & Children Hospital; Saint Joseph-London; St. Elizabeth Healthcare-Ft. Thomas; and St. Elizabeth Hospital-Florence.

Baptist Health La Grange earned its first-ever A in the patient safety report after receiving only Cs since fall 2018. 

“This rating is a testament to our staff who have been working so hard to provide the high quality, compassionate care for which Baptist Health is known – in the midst of a pandemic,” Clint Kaho, Baptist Health La Grange president, said in a news release. “It is especially meaningful for us to receive Leapfrog’s highest rating in patient safety when we are taking extraordinary measures to protect our patients, our staff and our communities during a pandemic and otherwise.”

Baptist Health Madisonville also moved up to an A after receiving only Cs since fall 2017. The last time it got an A was spring 2016. 

“Baptist Health Madisonville aims for constant and consistent improvement in our processes, using best practices to deliver excellent care to our patients,” Teresa Dillingham, quality director, said in a news release. “This grade reflects the dedication of our staff to high standards of patient care.”

Baptist Health Richmond, Flaget Memorial Hospital, Harrison Memorial Hospital and Saint Joseph London all moved up from a B in the last report. 

Shifts up and down

Baptist Health Corbin moved up to a B after getting three Cs in a row. Baptist Health Louisville moved up to a B after getting four Cs in a row. Baptist Health Paducah regained its B, after getting a C in the last grading period. 

Deaconess Henderson Hospital moved up to a B after getting two Cs, an F and a D in the last four reports.

And after getting four As in a row, Georgetown Community Hospital moved down to a B. 

Other hospitals on the B list are Owensboro Health, Glasgow's T.J. Samson Community Hospital, and Bowling Green's TriStar Greenview Regional Hospital. 

Forty-two percent of the Kentucky hospitals got Cs, and 13 of the 19 hospitals on that list also got a C on the last report. 

All three University of Louisville hospitals, which include recent additions Jewish Hospital and Mary and Elizabeth, got Cs on the report card.

U of L Hospital moved up to a C after getting nine Ds in a row. Mary and Elizabeth moved back up to a C after getting two Ds in a row. Jewish maintained its C after getting an F in the fall of 2019 and seven Ds prior to that.

U of L, which officially took ownership of the former KentuckyOne Health hospitals in November 2019, told Tessa Duvall of the Louisville Courier Journal that the data used for the Leapfrog report still reflects previous ownership.

"Since forming UofL Health in November of 2019, we have seen a consistent improvement in quality metrics," the hospital said. "While the Leapfrog survey is not the scorecard we use to drive improvement throughout our organization, we will never be satisfied with anything other than providing top-quality patient care."

Saint Joseph Hospital in Lexington moved down to a C after getting six Bs in a row. Saint Joseph East, also in Lexington, moved down to a C, after getting Bs on the last two reports. 

Whitesburg ARH Hospital down to a C, after getting six As, one B and one "no score" since fall 2016. 

Frankfort Regional Medical Center moved back to a C, after getting a B in the last report. 

Hazard Regional Medical Center got its fourth D in a row and Highlands Regional Medical Center in Prestonsburg went back to a D, after getting a C in the last report and four Ds prior to that. 

 
Click here for a list of Kentucky hospitals and their Leapfrog safety grades. Click here for a list of frequently asked questions about the report. The group has also provided a playbook titled, "Protecting Yourself During the Respiratory Illness Season: A Playbook for the Community," to serve as a guide for the public on steps to take to decrease the risk of sickness. 

Most Kentucky hospitals get a 'C' on a twice-a-year safety report card, including Jewish, which got a rare 'F' on the last report

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

For the fourth grading period in a row, a nonprofit group that rates patient safety in hospitals has given Cs to most of the 49 Kentucky hospitals it rated.

The Leapfrog Group, based in Washington, D.C., rates more than 2,600 hospitals. Most of Kentucky's 126 hospitals were not rated,. The group does not grade hospitals with  "critical access" status because they don't have to report quality measures to the federal government, nor does it grade hospitals for which there aren't enough publicly reported data or specialty or government hospitals.

Leapfrog gave As to 12 Kentucky hospitals, or about 24 percent of those graded. It gave Bs to 10, Cs to 24, and Ds to 3. Most of the changes from the last report, in November, came from hospitals in the two lowest grades moving into the C category, with only a few swaps in the upper grades.

The only hospital to get a failing grade last fall, Jewish Hospital in Louisville, jumped to a C grade in this one, after having received a string of Ds since the spring of 2016 before getting a failing grade in the last report.

The University of Louisville acquired Jewish Hospital and other facilities from KentuckyOne Health last fall. David McArthur, public relations director for U of L Health, told Chris Larson of Louisville Business First that the system continually strives for patient safety improvements.

"The Leapfrog grade increase for Jewish Hospital reflects improvement by U of L Health for the self-reporting of process data," McArthur told Larson in an e-mail. "U of L Hospital was already meeting the self-reporting standard." That hospital again got a D, as did Sts. Mary & Elizabeth Hospital, which was one of the facilities bought from KentuckyOne.

McArthur said Leapfrog is using the same federal outcome data from fall 2019, so "With no new data, no score improvement was expected there." Because of the coronavirus pandemic, hospitals were allowed to use their survey responses from 2019 in 2020, unless they chose to update it, Leapfrog said.

Hazard ARH Regional Medical Center got a D for the third time in a row, after getting Bs and Cs in prior reports.

Screenshot of Hazard ARH scores shows detail for infection issues and tabs for other issues.

The twice-yearly grades are calculated using 28 performance measures of patient safety that indicate how well hospitals protect patients from errors, injuries, accidents and infections. The report uses data from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Leapfrog's own survey, and other supplemental data sources. Hospitals are only graded if they have submitted adequate data for evaluation.

The Leapfrog site offers details on each of the measures under headings titled infections, problems with surgery, practices to prevent errors, safety problems, doctors, nurses and hospital staff. It also includes an easy-to-read, color-coded scale that indicates how the hospital is performing. For example, as shown in the graph above, Hazard ARH performed below average in three infection-control categories, but above average on two.

"While many hospitals are good at keeping their patients safe, some hospitals aren't," says Leapfrog. "As many as 440,000 people die every year from preventable errors in hospitals."

High scorers

St. Elizabeth Healthcare-Edgewood has received As on every Leapfrog report card since spring 2014, the first year it was graded.

Other hospitals on the A list are: Baptist Health Lexington; Clark Regional Medical Center in Winchester; Georgetown Community Hospital; Louisville's Norton Audubon Hospital, Norton Brownsboro Hospital, Norton Hospital and Norton Women's & Children's Hospital; St. Elizabeth Heatlhcare-Ft. Thomas; St. Elizabeth Hospital-Florence; Mercy Health Lourdes in Paducah and Whitesburg ARH Hospital.

Mercy Health Lourdes and Whitesburg ARH were the only two on this list to change their status since the last grading period, both moving up from a B.

Saluting the repeated As for all his adult-service hospitals, Norton Healthcare President and CEO Russell Cox called it "a testament to the hard work of our dedicated providers and employees, who consistently strive to deliver safe, high-quality care to our patients. Never has this been more apparent than during the current public health crisis with the covid-19 pandemic.”

Shifts up and down

Flaget Memorial Hospital in Bardstown fell to a B after getting its first-ever A in last fall's report, after getting four Cs in a row. Harrison Memorial Hospital in Cynthiana also dropped to a B, after receiving three As in a row.

Baptist Health Richmond moved up to a B, after getting three Cs in a row, and Frankfort Regional Medical Center regained its B status after a C in the last report.

Other hospitals on the B list are Owensboro Health, Saint Joseph East and Saint Joseph Hospital in Lexington, Saint Joseph-London and Glasgow's T.J. Sampson Community Hospital.

Most of the hospitals got Cs, and most of the changes were to that status.

Hardin Memorial Hospital in Elizabethtown moved to a C after getting a B in the last report; Baptist Health Paducah dropped to a C, after getting three Bs in a row.

Highlands Regional Medical Center in Prestonsburg moved up to a C, after four Ds in a row.

And after getting their first Ds since the spring of 2016, the University of Kentucky Albert B. Chandler Hospital and UK HealthCare Good Samaritan Hospital and moved back up to a C status.

Only a few Kentucky hospitals have ever received a failing grade from Leapfrog. Other than Jewish Hospital last fall, they have been Lexington's Saint Joseph East in fall 2015 (it got a B this time); Methodist Hospital of Henderson, spring 2019; and Campbellsville's Taylor Regional Hospital in spring 2013. Both got Cs this time.

Click here for a list of Kentucky hospitals and their Leapfrog safety grades. Click here for a list of frequently asked questions about the report.

More action needed to protect patients from antibiotic-resistant infections, which kill an American every 15 minutes, CDC says

Cover of CDC report; to download it, click here.

More action is needed to protect Americans from antibiotic-resistant infections, 2.8 million of which occur in the U.S. each year, killing more than 35,000 people, one about every 15 minutes, says the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

On top of that, 12,800 people died from an infection that is not drug-resistant but is "caused by the same factors that drive antibiotic resistance—antibiotic use and the spread of germs," the CDC said in its report, Antibiotic Resistance Threats in the United States, 2019. "The number of people facing antibiotic resistance is still too high. More action is needed to fully protect people."

Hospitals are a main battleground in the fight. The word "hospital" appears 188 times in the 148-page report, which was issued days after the Leapfrog Group's latest rankings of patient safety at hospitals nationwide, including 50 in Kentucky. The most common grade, on an A-to-F scale, was a C, and the report showed that many hospitals had difficulty dealing with resistant infections.

The University of Louisville Hospital got a D overall in the Leapfrog Group's patient-safety ratings and was rated poorly in dealing with one of the major antibiotic-resistant infections, Methicillin-resistant staphlycoccus areus (MRSA), and C. diff, an infection related to the use of antibiotics. Click to enlarge.

The report's foreword, by CDC Director Robert Redfield, sums up the history of antibiotics in personal terms: "In March 1942, Mrs. Anne Miller of New Haven, Connecticut, was near death. Infectious germs had made their way into her bloodstream. Desperate to save her, doctors administered an experimental drug: penicillin, which Alexander Fleming discovered 14 years earlier. In just hours, she recovered, becoming the first person in the world to be saved by an antibiotic. Rather than dying in her thirties, Mrs. Miller lived to be 90 years old.

"Today, decades later, germs like the one that infected Mrs. Miller are becoming resistant to antibiotics. You could have one in or on your body right now—a resistant germ that, in the right circumstances, could also infect you. But—unlike the bacteria that threatened Mrs. Miller—the bacteria may be able to avoid the effects of the antibiotics designed to kill them. Unfortunately, like nearly 3 million people across the United States, you or a loved one may face an antibiotic-resistant infection."

The use of antibiotics has a self-defeating element: the growth of genetically different bacteria and fungi that have mutated into forms that are resistant to the antibiotics or picked up resistance traits from other germs through mobile genetic elements. Also, antibiotic use encourages development of Clostridioides difficile, or C. diff., a bacterium "that can cause symptoms ranging from diarrhea to life-threatening inflammation of the colon," says the Mayo Clinic. The CDC report says 223,900 cases of C. diff. occurred in 2017, killing at least 12,800 Americans.

"Dedicated prevention and infection control efforts in the U.S. are working to reduce the number of infections and deaths caused by antibiotic-resistant germs, but . . . CDC is concerned about rising resistant infections in the community, which can put more people at risk, make spread more difficult to identify and contain, and threaten the progress made to protect patients," the CDC said in announcing the report. "The emergence and spread of new forms of resistance remains a concern."

What is to be done? "Public-health prevention programs targeting resistant germs can and have worked to slow spread and save lives, but more needs to be done," the report says. "The U.S. and global community must scale up these effective strategies and develop new strategies to prevent infections and save lives. In the United States, infection prevention activities have proven effective in slowing the spread of resistant germs. This includes:

• Strategies to decrease spread within healthcare settings (e.g., implementing hand hygiene)
• Vaccinations
• Implementing biosecurity measures on farms
• Responding rapidly to unusual genes and germs when they first appear, keeping new threats from spreading

Medicare cuts 19 Kentucky hospitals 1% for patient-safety issues; two in Louisville have been been penalized five years straight

The federal government is penalizing 19 Kentucky hospitals, nine more than last year, for falling short on patient safety in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention photo

Medicare imposed a 1 percent cut in payment to 800 U.S. hospitals this year that were found to have high numbers of patients with avoidable infections and complications, such as blood clots, urinary-tract and surgical-site infections, bed sores and falls, and infections related to antibiotic-resistant infections, like methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Clostridium difficile (C.diff.).

This is the fifth year of the Hospital Acquired Conditions Reduction Program, which was created under the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The program penalizes the worst 25% of hospitals on a list of patient-safety measures, even if their records have improved from the previous year, Jordan Rau reports for Kaiser Health News.

Critical-access hospitals and specialized hospitals that treat psychiatric patients, veterans and children are exempt from the penalties.

Since the program's inception, Rau reports, 110 hospitals have been punished all five times. Two of them are in Louisville: the University of Louisville Hospital and Jewish Hospital & St. Mary's Healthcare.

Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center in Danville and Jennie Stuart Medical Center in Hopkinsville are on the penalty list for the fourth straight year.

Norton Hospital / Norton Healthcare Pavilion in Louisville is being penalized for the third straight year, after being penalized the first year of the program but not the second.

Highlands Regional Medical Center in Prestonsburg, Jewish Hospital-Shelbyville, and St. Claire Regional Medical Center in Morehead were penalized last year and are also on the list this year.

Rockcastle Regional Hospital & Respiratory Care Center in Mount Vernon is also on the list for the second year in a row. It has only had one other penalty in the past five years, in 2016.

Owensboro Health Muhlenberg Community Hospital in Greenville is being penalized this year. In the past five years, the only other time it was not penalized was in 2017.

Officials at the Muhlenberg County hospital said the 1% reduction in Medicare reimbursements comes to about $50,000 a year, Renee Beasley Jones reports for the Messenger-Inquirer in Owensboro. Beasley reports in depth on the hospital's penalties and how the administration is working to improve its quality and patient safety scores.

Several hospitals are being penalized for the first time, including: T. J. Samson Community Hospital in Glasgow, Flaget Memorial Hospital in Bardstown, Saint Joseph Mount Sterling, The Medical Center at Albany, Baptist Health Louisville, Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital in Somerset, and Baptist Health La Grange.

Jackson Purchase Medical Center in Mayfield is also being penalized this year. The last time it was on the list was during the first year the penalties were implemented, in 2015.

University of Kentucky Hospital in Lexington has been on the penalty list every other year since the program's inception, including this year.

Click here for a Kaiser Health News tool that shows Medicare penalties for hospital readmissions and hospital-acquired conditions. The data can be broken down by year, state, hospital, and county.

The hospital industry has long protested these penalties, saying it is the wrong approach to encourage hospitals to improve quality and safety. A 2018 statement from the American Hospital Association cites research that shows only about 41% of the 768 hospitals penalized in 2017 had HAC scores that were significantly higher, statistically speaking, than hospitals not being penalized.

"In other words, the majority of hospitals receiving HAC penalty have performance indistinguishable from those that are not being penalized," it says.

Further, Rau reports that "hospitals also complain that the ones that do the best job testing for infections and other threats to patients appear to be among the worst based on statistics, while their more lackadaisical peers look better than they might be."

But supporters of the program argue that "the penalties are warranted in prodding hospitals to improve quality," he writes.

“The fact that everyone’s talking about it, from front-line nurses to boards of directors, is positioning patient safety where it should be, which is at the forefront of everyone’s minds,” Missy Danforth, the vice-president of health care ratings at the Leapfrog Group, told Rau.

Danforth also dismissed the hospital complaints that the penalties are not fairly applied. She told Rau, "There's a lot of really strong, good best practices to getting to zero on these infections."

Medicare-Medicaid agency's annual ratings of 94 Ky. hospitals gives the lowest score to six; only one got the highest ranking

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has released its Overall Hospital Star Ratings for 2019, which offer a snapshot of the quality of the hospitals in your area, and across the nation.

Screenshot of Medicare's Hospital Compare website

Of the 94 Kentucky hospitals that CMS rated, Saint Joseph Martin, a 25-bed critical-access hospital in Floyd County, was the only one to get a five-star rating, which is the highest. (KentuckyOne Health sold the hospital in 2018 to Appalachian Regional Healthcare.)

Six Kentucky hospitals got the minimum rating of one star, including those at the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville. Also on the one-star list were Highlands Regional Medical Center in Prestonsburg, Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital in Somerset, Pikeville Medical Center, and The Medical Center at Bowling Green.

Most of the 94 rated hospitals fell in the middle, with 21 getting four stars; 32 getting three stars; and 22 getting two stars. Click here for the results of Kentucky hospitals in Hospital Compare.

Hospital Compare rates more than 4,000 Medicare-certified hospitals, and provides stars for those that provide adequate information. Each rating is based on as many as 57 quality measures.

The report and the Hospital Compare website focus on seven areas: a list of general information, such as the hospital's ability to receive and track lab results; a survey of patients' experiences; timely and effective care; complications and deaths; unplanned hospital visits; use of medical imaging; and payment for, and value of, care. The report has a star ranking for each of these categories.

In addition to Hospital Compare, consumers can also check ratings by U.S. News & World Report, which were released in August; and the recently released safety ratings by the Leapfrog Group.

A report may offer a higher score than another for the same hospital, largely because they measure different things, Jayne O'Donnell reports for USA Today in an article headlined, "Deadly error, infections: When hospital ratings don't align, what should patients believe?"

For example, Leapfrog's ratings focus on preventable safety issues. Hospital Compare includes a wide range of safety and quality measures, but has little overlap with U.S. News & World Report.

Another resource is Kaiser Health News' list of hospitals that are penalized by Medicare for high rates of readmissions and hospital-acquired conditions.

What if you have no choice but to go to a "C-grade hospital or worse"? Walecia Konrad of CBS News put that question to Leapfrog Director Erica Mobley, who offered a list of suggestions:

• Get an advocate and make sure they check on you frequently.
• Speak up! If it seems different or unusual, say something.
• Ask everyone to wash their hands -- even the nurses, doctors and other caregivers.
• Bring in a list of your medications and make sure it is entered into your record.
• Avoid falls. Ask for help to the bathroom and make sure the path to the bathroom is clear.

Most Ky. hospitals got an average patient safety score, one failed; low scoring hospitals have increased risk of "avoidable death"

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

For the second grading period in a row, a nonprofit group that rates hospitals has given Cs to most of the 52 Kentucky hospitals it rated; and for the first time since 2015, one hospital got an F, along with only nine other hospitals nationwide. In the percentage of hospitals with A grades, Kentucky continues to rank 33rd among the states.

The Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit group based in Washington, D.C., rated more than 2,600 hospitals. Most of Kentucky's 129 hospitals were not rated, since rural hospitals with "critical access" status don't have to report quality measures to the federal government.

Leapfrog gave As to 11 Kentucky hospitals, or nearly 21% of those graded, lower than the national average of 32%. It gave Bs to 10, Cs to 25 , Ds to 5 and an F to 1. With the exception of the one failing grade, these numbers are similar to the fall report.

Methodist Hospital of Henderson was one of only nine hospitals nationwide that got a failing grade, putting it in the bottom 1% of hospitals scored. Leapfrog shows that the hospital's score has dropped steadily since the spring of 2016 when it got an A; that was followed by two Bs, two Cs, a D and an F.

The twice-yearly grades are calculated using 28 performance measures of patient safety that indicate how well hospitals protect patients from preventable medical errors, accidents, infections and injuries. The report uses data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Leapfrog's own survey, and other supplemental data sources. Hospitals are only graded if they have submitted adequate data for evaluation.

The Leapfrog Group Hospital Safety Grade website is easy to use and offers
information on 52 Kentucky hospitals.

The Leapfrog site offers details on each of the measures under headings titled infections, problems with surgery, practices to prevent errors, safety problems, doctors, nurses & hospital staff. It also includes an easy-to-read, color-coded scale that indicates how the hospital is performing.

For example, Methodist Hospital of Henderson scored below average on 16 of the measures, average on one measure, and above average on nine; and two measures weren't evaluated.

Only two other Kentucky hospitals have ever received a failing grade from Leapfrog: Saint Joseph East in Lexington in fall 2015 and Taylor Regional Hospital in Campbellsville in the spring 2013.

According to the Leapfrog researchers, hospitals with grades lower than an A can put patients at an increased risk of "avoidable death." The news release says patients at D and F hospitals face a 92% greater risk of avoidable death; patients at C hospitals on average face an 88% greater risk of avoidable death; and patients at B hospitals on average face a 35% greater risk of avoidable death.

Leapfrog estimates that 160,000 lives are lost every year from avoidable medical errors that are accounted for in its grading process. It says that's a significant improvement from 2016, when it estimated the number to be around 205,000.

“The good news is that tens of thousands of lives have been saved because of progress on patient safety,” Leah Binder, president and CEO of the Leapfrog Group, said in the release. “The bad news is that there’s still a lot of needless death and harm in American hospitals.”

High scorers

St. Elizabeth Healthcare-Edgewood has received As on every Leapfrog report card since spring 2014, the first year it was graded.

Other hospitals on the A list are: St. Elizabeth hospitals in Florence and Fort Thomas; Baptist Health Lexington; Clark Regional Medical Center in Winchester; Georgetown Community Hospital; Harrison Memorial Hospital in Cynthiana; Norton Audubon Hospital, Norton Brownsboro Hospital and Norton Women's & Children Hospital, all in Louisville; and Whitesburg ARH Hospital.

Norton Brownsboro and Norton Women's & Children hospitals were the the only two on this list to change their status since the last grading period, both moving up from a B.

Low scorers

The five hospitals that got Ds are: Taylor Regional Hospital, Hazard ARH Regional Medical Center; Highlands Regional Medical Center in Prestonsburg; Jewish Hospital in Louisville; and the University of Louisville Hospital.

This was the first D assigned to the Hazard hospital, which since the spring of 2016 had received Bs and Cs. Taylor also moved from a C to a D.

Jewish and the U of L hospital have received Ds since the spring 2016.

U of L Hospital, which separated from KentuckyOne Health on July 1, 2018; KentuckyOne Health, which owns Jewish and Sts. Mary & Elizabeth Hospital; and Baptist Health, on behalf of several of its hospitals across the state, sent statements to Darla Carter of Insider Louisville saying they took issue with the grades, namely because they are based on older data.

“We have reviewed our (publicly) reported data since July 2017, and utilizing the Leapfrog Group’s own calculator for scoring with that data, our calculated grade would have been a C,” Dr. Jason Smith, chief medical officer of U of L Hospital, told Insider Louisville. “This improvement is in line with what we anticipated our ranking would be at this point when we re-assumed oversight of our hospital in July 2017.”

Shifts up and down

TriStar Greenview Regional Hospital in Bowling Green dropped to a grade of B, after receiving five As in a row.

Others on the B list include: Baptist Health Paducah, which maintained its B from the last grading period after getting four Cs in a row; Frankfort Regional Medical Center, which maintained its B from the last period after receiving five As in a row; and Mercy Health Lourdes in Paducah, which maintained its B from last time after getting two Ds and three Cs. The two University of Kentucky hospitals got Cs for the second straight grading period, after getting four Bs in a row.

Three hospitals on the C list dropped from a B in the last grading period: Jackson Purchase Medical Center in Mayfield, Harlan ARH Hospital and T. J. Samson Community Hospital in Glasgow. Saints Mary & Elizabeth Hospital in Louisville got its second C in a row, after having received a D grades since spring 2016.

The Leapfrog Group says its analysis was developed under the guidance of the nation's leading patient-safety experts and is peer-reviewed. Click here to see all of Kentucky hospital's Leapfrog hospital safety grades. Click here for Leapfrog recommendations on how to use the grades.

Larger Kentucky hospitals' average grade for patient safety declined, but their overall national ranking was about the same

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

A nonprofit group that rates hospitals has released its latest grades for keeping patients safe, giving Cs to most of the 51 Kentucky hospitals it rated. Their average grade was worse than the spring 2018 ratings, but Kentucky's overall ranking among the states, based on the percentage of hospitals with A grades, improved one spot, to 33rd, from the spring report.

Ky. Health News chart based on Leapfrog Group data and logo

The Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit group based in Washington, D.C., rated over 2,600 hospitals. Most of Kentucky's 129 hospitals were not rated, since rural hospitals with "critical access" status don't have to report quality measures to the federal government.

The grades are calculated using 28 performance measures of patient safety that indicate how well hospitals protect patients from preventable medical errors, infections and injuries. The study notes that one in 25 patients leave hospitals with a new infection. It uses data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Leapfrog's own survey, and the American Hospital Association's annual survey and information-technology supplement.

Leapfrog gave As to 12 Kentucky hospitals, or nearly 24 percent of those graded, lower than the national average of 32 percent. It gave Bs to 12, Cs to 23, and Ds to 4. None got a failing grade. Compared to the spring report, five fewer hospitals got Bs and 10 more got Cs.

Low scorers

Highlands Regional Medical Center in Prestonsburg got its second D in a row. Methodist Hospital of Henderson got its first D, and two Louisville hospitals that are consistent low scorers, Jewish Hospital and the University of Louisville Hospital, again got Ds.

Sts. Mary & Elizabeth Hospital in Louisville moved up to a C after receiving five Ds in a row.

Pikeville Medical Center kept its C for a second straight report card, after getting all As before that.

High scorers

The St. Elizabeth Healthcare hospitals in Edgewood, Florence and Fort Thomas all got As. so did Baptist Health Lexington, TriStar Greenview Hospital in Bowling Green and Whitesburg ARH Hospital.

Norton Audubon Hospital and Norton Hospital, both in Louisville, got their first As, both having received a mix of Bs and Cs since spring 2015.

Georgetown Community Hospital again got an A, after getting a B in the spring and a C last fall.

Clark Regional Medical Center in Winchester got its first A, having received two Cs and three Bs since spring 2016, the first time it was graded.

Harrison Memorial Hospital in Cynthiana and Middlesboro ARH Hospital, which had not been ranked for several years, also got As.

Moving down: examples

The two University of Kentucky hospitals dropped to a C. Both had received Bs since fall 2016.

Hardin Memorial Hospital in Elizabethtown got a C, dropping from an A in the last two reports.

Murray-Calloway County Hospital dropped to a C after having received all As since fall 2015.

Baptist Health Richmond got its first C, having received two As and five Bs since spring 2015.

Our Lady of Bellefonte Hospital in Ashland dropped to a C after having received all Bs since fall 2016.

Frankfort Regional Medical Center dropped to a B after receiving all As since spring 2015.

Moving up: examples

Lourdes Hospital in Paducah got a B, after having received Ds in the last two grading periods and Cs prior to that.

T.J. Samson Community Hospital in Glasgow got a B after receiving four Cs in a row.

Harlan ARH Hospital got a B, having received no score in the spring and Cs since the spring of 2017.

Jewish Hospital Shelbyville got a B after not getting a score since the spring of 2017 and having received two Cs prior to that.

Taylor Regional Hospital in Campbellsville moved back up to a C after getting a D in the spring. With the exception of that D, the hospital has received Cs since spring 2015.

The Leapfrog Group says its analysis was developed under the guidance of the nation's leading patient-safety experts and is peer-reviewed. Click here to see all of Kentucky hospital's Leapfrog hospital safety grades. Click here for Leapfrog recommendations on how to use the grades.