Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1336426
20 POPULATION HEALTH 20 CEO / STRATEGY South Carolina hospital CEO says Leapfrog is 'increasingly irrelevant,' disputes failing safety grade By Ayla Ellison T he Regional Medical Center in Or- angeburg, S.C., was one of 16 hospi- tals to receive a failing grade from the Leapfrog Group in its Fall 2020 Safety Grades. e hospital's interim CEO, Kirk Wilson, says ratings from the Leapfrog Group are becom- ing "increasingly irrelevant," according to e Times and Democrat. e nonprofit Leapfrog Group releases hos- pital safety grades every fall and spring. e ratings are based on up to 27 quality mea- sures, ranging from hand hygiene adherence to surgical site infection rates. Of the more than 2,600 hospitals graded, less than 1 percent earned an "F" in the fall ratings released in December. e Regional Medical Center was one of those hospitals. e fall 2020 results show that the hospital performed below average on 19 patient safety measures, according to the report. Mr. Wilson says the safety grade from Leap- frog is not the best indicator of care provided at the RMC. "What matters to us is how the patients feel about us and how insurance companies see us and how CMS sees us," Mr. Wilson told e Times and Democrat. "at is what is import- ant to our doctors and our patients." Mr. Wilson said many times grades from Leapfrog are based on whether a hospital participates in the survey. "It is a very po- litical organization and frankly not worth our time to work with," he told e Times and Democrat. Leapfrog Group President and CEO Leah Binder disputed Mr. Wilson's claims. "It's human nature when you get a bad grade to say there's something wrong with the grad- ers," she told e Times and Democrat. "But the fact is the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is the gold standard for rating hospital safety. "Regional Medical Center will have much more success improving their own patient care than trying to pick apart Leapfrog — the nation's most tested, validated and transpar- ent hospital ratings system." n 2021 predicted to be fiercely competitive for MBA applicants By Molly Gamble A cceptance into an MBA program may be especially challenging in 2021 due to the alignment of several factors, The Wall Street Journal reported. At the start of the pandemic, applications to MBA programs for fall 2020 surged as students looked for ways to ride out an unstable job market. Full- time residential MBA programs continue to report more applications for fall 2021. These programs also expect to have fewer spots for 2021, since many offered enrollment deferrals to international students in 2020 due to travel restrictions caused by the global pandemic, WSJ reported. The deferral rate for MBA students climbed from 2 percent in 2019 to 6 percent in 2020, according to the Graduate Management Admis- sion Council. Some programs are expanding 2021 class sizes. Harvard Business School in Boston, for example, plans to enroll about 1,000 students for the next two years — up slightly from its typical 930 enrollments. But the constricted resources of smaller MBA programs make it diffi- cult for them to accommodate more students, especially after some had already reduced class sizes after several years of fewer applica- tions. "Everything points to this being the most competitive year ever for MBA applicants," Jeremy Shinewald, founder of admissions consult- ing firm mbaMission, told WSJ. "I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if schools crush their records for application volume." n Amazon wants to offer primary care to other employers, report says By Alia Paavola A mazon wants to provide online and in-person primary care for other large employers, people familiar with its plan told Business Insider in December. The push into primary care would be an ex- tension of Amazon Care, launched in Seattle in September 2019 to serve Amazon em- ployees. In September 2020, the company expanded the pilot program to the rest of Washington state. The program offers employees telemedicine and in-person healthcare services. Virtual ser- vices include in-app visits with a physician, nurse practitioner or nurse for employees seeking medical advice, diagnosis, treatment or referrals. Now, Amazon plans to sell Amazon Care to other large companies to help them lower the cost of healthcare, according to the report. The company plans to save companies money by bypassing health plans and brokers. An Amazon spokesperson told Business In- sider that it would not comment on rumor or speculation. n