Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

33 QUALITY IMPROVEMENT & MEASUREMENT Leapfrog Releases Fall 2017 Hospital Safety Grades By Brian Zimmerman T he Leapfrog Group released its fall 2017 Hospital Safety Grades Oct. 31, assigning A through F letter grades to 2,632 acute care hospitals for patient safety performance. Here are six things to know about the safety grades and this season's update. 1. e safety grades, which Leapfrog releases every fall and spring, are based on 27 quality measures compiled by the Leapfrog Group, CMS, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the CDC and the American Hospital Association. Areas of measurement include nurse communication, hand hygiene adherence and surgical site infection rates, among others. 2. Of the more than 2,600 hospitals graded, 832 earned an A grade, 662 earned a B, 964 earned a C, 159 earned a D and 15 earned an F. 3. Hospitals given F grades were located in California, Washington, D.C., Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Mississippi and New York. 4. Rhode Island, Maine, Hawaii, Idaho and Vir- ginia carried the highest percentage of A hospi- tals among all states. North Dakota, Washing- ton, D.C., Delaware, Maryland and New York had the lowest percentage of A hospitals. 5. Oregon, Rhode Island, Hawaii, Wisconsin and Idaho displayed the most improvement since the Hospital Safety Grade rankings launched in spring 2012. Rhode Island has demonstrated the most dramatic improvement, moving from the No. 50 position in spring 2012 to the number No. 1 position in fall 2017. 6. Fiy-nine hospitals across the nation have earned an A rating in every scoring update since the ranking system's inception. n Where Are the 15 Leapfrog F Hospitals? By Brian Zimmerman A mong the 2,632 hospitals graded in The Leap- frog Group's fall 2017 Hospital Safety Grades, 15 received failing grades. This figure marks an increase from the 10 hospitals that received an F in spring 2017. Of the 15 hospitals assigned Fs this fall, three also earned Fs in the spring. These hospitals are denoted with asterisks below. Here is a list of this fall's F hospitals broken down by state. California Antelope Valley Hospital (Lancaster) Hemet Valley Medical Center Memorial Hospital of Gardena* Menifee Valley Medical Center (Sun City) Olympia Medical Center (Los Angeles)* Victor Valley Global Medical Center (Victorville)* Florida Heart of Florida Regional Medical Center (Davenport) Illinois Roseland Community Hospital (Chicago) Maryland Bon Secours Baltimore Health System Mississippi University of Mississippi Medical Center Grenada New York Brookdale Hospital Medical Center (New York City) Interfaith Medical Center (New York City) Richmond University Medical Center (New York City) Washington, D.C. Howard University Hospital United Medical Center n CMS' 'Meaningful Measures' Initiative Seeks to Curb Burden of Quality Reporting By Mackenzie Bean C MS unveiled the "Meaningful Measures" initiative Oct. 30, which aims to reduce the regulatory hurdles associated with quality reporting. Here are three things to know. 1. The agency plans to simplify the measures hospitals and physi- cians must report on, zeroing in on the most important measures to improve care quality and patient outcomes. "We need to move from fee-for-service to a system that pays for value and quality — but how we define value and quality today is a problem," CMS Administrator Seema Verma said Monday during a speech at the Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network Fall Summit. "We all know it: Clinicians and hospitals have to report an array of measures to different payers. There are many steps involved in submitting them, taking time away from patients. Moreover, it's not clear whether all of these measures are actually improving patient care." 2. CMS co-developed Meaningful Measures with the Learning and Action Network, the National Academies of Medicine, the Core Quality Measures Collaborative and the National Quali- ty Forum. Through the initiative, these groups will identify the issues most critical to quality improvement and make sure CMS regulations reflect these core areas. "It's better to focus on achieving results, as opposed to having CMS try to micromanage and measure processes," Ms. Verma said. "The ultimate goal of Meaningful Measures is to direct efforts on high-priority areas." 3. Meaningful Measures comes a week after CMS launched "Patients Over Paperwork," an initiative aimed at identifying unnecessary burdens and inefficiencies that prevent healthcare providers from spending time with patients. n

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