Mercy Hospital Makes the Grade with an “A” for Patient Safety
Portland, ME and Washington, DC (June 26, 2012) – Mercy Hospital was honored with an “A” Hospital Safety ScoreSM by The Leapfrog Group, an independent national nonprofit run by employers and other large purchasers of health benefits. The Hospital Safety ScoreSM was calculated under the guidance of The Leapfrog Group’s Blue Ribbon Expert Panel using publicly available data on patient injuries, medical and medication errors, and infections. U.S. hospitals were assigned an A, B, C, D, or F for their safety.
“We are honored to receive this recognition and I am proud of our providers and staff for making Mercy one of the safest hospitals in Maine and across the country,” says Eileen Skinner, President & CEO of Mercy Health System of Maine.
“Our patients and the community expect Mercy to have the highest standards in patient safety; which go hand in hand with Mercy’s mission to provide clinically excellent and compassionate care. This ‘report card’ program provides yet another level of validation for our efforts and the importance of safety when choosing a provider. We remain committed to our efforts to create a safe and healing environment for our patients.”
“It’s The Leapfrog Group’s goal to give patients the information they need and deserve before even entering a hospital,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “We congratulate the hospitals that earned an ‘A’ and we look forward to the day when all hospitals in the U.S. will earn the highest scores for putting patient safety first.”
To see Mercy’s scores as they compare nationally and locally, visit www.hospitalsafetyscore.org, the Hospital Safety ScoreSM website, which also provides information on how the public can protect themselves and loved ones during a hospital stay.
Calculated under the guidance of The Leapfrog Group’s nine-member Blue Ribbon Expert Panel, the Hospital Safety Score uses 26 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to produce a single score representing a hospital’s overall capacity to keep patients safe from infections, injuries, and medical and medication errors. The panel includes: John Birkmeyer (University of Michigan), Ashish Jha (Harvard University), Lucian Leape (Harvard University), Arnold Millstein (Stanford University), Peter Pronovost (Johns Hopkins University), Patrick Romano (University of California, Davis), Sara Singer (Harvard University), Tim Vogus (Vanderbilt University), and Robert Wachter (University of California, San Francisco).
About The Leapfrog Group
The Leapfrog Group (www.leapfroggroup.org) is a national organization using the collective leverage of large purchasers of health care to initiate breakthrough improvements in the safety, quality, and affordability of health care for Americans. The flagship Leapfrog Hospital Survey allows purchasers to structure their contracts and purchasing to reward the highest performing hospitals. The Leapfrog Group was founded in November 2000 with support from the Business Roundtable and national funders, and is now independently operated with support from its purchaser and other members.
About Mercy Health System of Maine
Mercy Health System of Maine is a growing community of health care providers who provide clinically excellent, compassionate care. A recognized leader in quality, safety, innovation and patient experience, Mercy operates campuses throughout southern Maine, offering a broad range of medical and surgical services, as well as primary and specialty care. The story of Mercy includes Mercy Hospital, Gary’s House, McAuley Residence, Mercy Recovery Center, and VNA Home Health Hospice. For more information, please call (207) 879-3486 or visit www.mercyhospital.org.
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