Lansdale Hospital Gets an 'A' for Safety

was given a grade of "A" by a national group focused on ranking and rating hospitals' performance in keeping patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors.

The ranking of overall performance listed Lansdale Hospital under its prior name - Central Montgomery Medical Center.

You can read the details of Lansdale Hospital's ranking by clicking this link.

The ratings were given out and announced Monday by the Leapfrog Group, an independent national nonprofit run by employers and other large purchasers of health benefits.

Grand View Hospital in Sellersville received a "B" rating for safety. All the ratings, together with more information, are on the Hospital Safety Group website.

"The Leapfrog Group board has been frustrated with the lack of progress in improving patient safety, despite significant industry efforts over the past decade," David Knowlton, immediate past chair of The Leapfrog Group Board of Directors and chair of The Leapfrog Group’s Patient Safety Committee, said in a news release. “It is time for a game changer. It’s time to give American families the heads-up they need to protect themselves if they face the need for a hospital stay.”

Lansdale Hospital was graded based on specific criteria within six separate categories: 

• Structural Measures (Informing patients about the environment in which they may receive care)
• Safe Practice Measures (Reducing the risk of patient harm in certain processes, systems or environments of care)
• Surgical Care Improvement Project Measures (How often patients received the right care to reduce the risk of infection after surgery)
• Hospital Acquired Condition Measures (Serious complications that occur to a patient during a hospital stay that can result in serious harm or death)
• Hospital Acquired Infections Measure (Measure of central-line associated blood stream infections that occur in ICUs)
• Patient Safety Indicators (Providing information on potential in-hospital complications and adverse events following surgeries, procedures, and childbirth)

According to Hospital Safety Score, the rating is one piece of information to use when planning a hospital stay. Scenarios where the rating should be considered include preparing to have a baby, visting for emergency situations, requiring consistent hospital care and scheduling of high-risk or life-threatening surgery.

The Hospital Safety Score considers safety measurements represented in the basics of medical care, like hand washing, computerized medication control and staffing.

According to the websie for Hospital Safety Score, the following performance measures were used to tally the final grade:

• Leapfrog Hospital Survey
• The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
• The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
• American Hospital Association’s Annual Survey