Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1336426
42 CMO / CARE DELIVERY Where are the 29 Leapfrog straight-'A' hospitals? By Gabrielle Masson T he Leapfrog Group released its fall 2020 Hospital Safety Grades Dec. 14, assigning "A" through "F" letter grades to more than 2,600 acute care hospitals for patient safety performance. Leapfrog has assigned letter grades to hos- pitals based on their patient safety perfor- mance twice annually since spring 2012, with 29 hospitals maintaining the highest possible grade 18 consecutive times. e data for this safety grades update does not yet include hospitals' performance during the height of COVID-19, Leapfrog said. is spring's update will be the first to incorporate pandemic response periods. Arizona Mayo Clinic Hospital (Phoenix) California French Hospital Medical Center (San Luis Obispo) Kaiser Permanente Orange County-Ana- heim Medical Center Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center (San Luis Obispo) Colorado Rose Medical Center (Denver) Florida AdventHealth Daytona Beach Memorial Hospital Miramar Illinois Elmhurst Memorial Hospital Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital (Winfield) OSF St. Mary Medical Center (Galesburg) University of Chicago Medical Center Massachusetts Beverly Hospital Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital (Boston) Saint Anne's Hospital (Fall River) Michigan Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital (Commerce Township) Michigan Medicine (Ann Arbor) Mississippi Baptist Memorial Hospital Golden Triangle (Columbus) North Carolina UNC Rex Hospital (Raleigh) New Jersey Saint Barnabas Medical Center (Livingston) Ohio OhioHealth Dublin Methodist Hospital OhioHealth Grady Memorial Hospital (Del- aware) Texas Memorial Hermann Katy Hospital St. David's Medical Center (Austin) Virginia Inova Loudoun Hospital (Leesburg) Sentara CarePlex Hospital (Hampton) Sentara Leigh Hospital (Norfolk) Sentara Obici Hospital (Suffolk) Sentara Williamsburg Regional Medical Center Washington Virginia Mason Medical Center (Seattle) n Cardiologist claims Colorado system fired her 1 day after she told CEO concerns of understaffing By Molly Gamble A cardiologist claims that Broomfield, Colo.-based SCL Health fired her out of retaliation one day after she emailed the system CEO with concerns about specialist understaffing, the Denver Post reported Dec. 21. Payal Kohli, MD, practiced at SCL Health's Good Samaritan Medical Center in Lafayette, Colo., from 2017 to 2019. She claims hospital and system leadership ordered cardiolo- gists to cover the emergency room and intensive care unit at the same times they were scheduled to see patients in their offices. She also alleges one physician who was qual- ified to perform procedures like placing pacemakers also had to cover multiple hospitals because the system did not have enough cardiologists. Dr. Kohli alleges that at least eight patients received sub- standard care in summer 2019, and a 29-year-old man died when no one was available to put in a pacemaker he needed. The physician claims she was passed over for promotions and stripped of her leadership roles after she raised con- cerns about understaffing. She says she was fired one day after emailing her concerns to Lydia Jumonville, president and CEO of SCL Health, according to the Denver Post. The eight-hospital system said it does not comment on pending litigation, but did share the following statement with the Denver Post: "Good Samaritan Medical Center and SCL Health take all complaints about patient care and safety very seriously, and we have a robust and confidential process in place to address patient care concerns, consistent with the process all hospitals follow per federal and Colorado state laws." n