Baran-Unland: Why you should care about local hospitals’ Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades

Twice a year, The Leapfrog Group assigns its Hospital Safety Grade to nearly 3,000 general acute-care hospitals in the U.S.

Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox received an “A” from for fall 2022, which is Silver Cross’ 16th consecutive A for patient safety since 2015, according to Silver Cross.

Morris Hospital also received an “A” – its ninth in a row since the fall of 2018, according to Morris Hospital.

But you can quickly access that this easy-to-understand information yourself. Here’s why you should.

The Leapfrog Group, a hospital and patient safety watchdog group, has volumes amounts of information on its website about safety at individual hospitals and outpatient surgical centers. It also has tips and resources to help patients stay safe while navigating the health care system.

You can learn how to prepare yourself or loved ones for hospitalizations. You can learn effective ways to discuss patient safety with doctors.

The Leapfrog Group defines patient safety on its website, along with how it created its Hospital Safety Grade, how it obtains information for grading and why its Hospital Safety Grade benefits patients.

Here’s how it works.

Search for a hospital by name or search for hospitals by city, state or zip code. You will first see the letter grade assigned to that hospital or hospitals in the area.

Beneath each hospital, you can click to see the hospital’s full safety score. That opens up to details about patient safety at that hospital in terms of infections, problems with surgery, patient safety, practices to prevent errors and doctors, nurses and hospital staff.

Click on each of these topics and granular information opens up about the hospital you are researching:

Infections: MRSA, D. diff, infection in the blood, infection in the urinary tract, surgical site infection after colon surgery and sepsis.

Problems with surgery: dangerous objects left in a patient’s body, surgical sounds that split open, death from serious treatable complications, blood leakage, kidney injury after surgery, serious breathing problems and accidental cuts and tears.

Safety problems: harmful events, dangerous bed sores, patient falls and injuries, falls causing broken hips, collapsed lung, dangerous blood clot, air or gas bubble in the blood

Practices to prevent errors: doctors order medications through a computer, safe medication administration, hand washing, communication about medicines, communication about discharge, staff work together to prevent errors

Doctors, nurses and hospital staff: effective leadership to prevent errors, enough qualified nurses, specially trained doctors care for ICU patients, communication with doctors, communication with nurses, responsiveness of hospital staff.

You will also find information on patient-centered care (including bill ethics), pediatric care, maternity care, medication safety, You will also find information on patient-centered care (including bill ethics), pediatric care, maternity care, medication safety, complex adult and pediatric surgery, total joint replacement, elective outpatient surgery (adult and pediatric). You will also find more detailed information on each of these topics, too.

Search for details on a hospital hospital by visiting hospitalsafetygrade.org/your-hospitals-safety-grade and ratings.leapfroggroup.org.

Denise M. Baran-Unland is the features editor for The Herald-News in Joliet. She covers a variety of human interest stories. Contact her at 815-280-4122 or dunland@shawmedia.com.