Valley Receives High Marks in National Survey

Ridgewood’s has received an ‘A’ grade for patient health and safety in a country-wide evaluation of more than 2,600 general hospitals in the United States.

The survey, which awards grades of A, B, C, D or F, is part of the Hospital Safety Score initiative undertaken by the Leapfrog Group, a not-for-profit organization of private healthcare experts and employer purchasers of healthcare. 

“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.”

The group evaluated 26 measures of patient safety based on avoidable infections, injuries and medical and medication injuries suffered while receiving care, using publicly available data from late 2008 to mid-2010. According to the survey’s website, hospitalsafetyscore.org, Valley Hospital received perfect scores in Safe Practice Measures – such as nurse training, worker hygiene and teamwork training – and excellent scores in avoiding hospital acquired conditions. 

“We are pleased and proud to be among the select group of hospitals to have received an “A” for patient safety,” said Mitchell Rubinstein, M.D., Vice President of Medical Affairs, The Valley Hospital. “This top grade is a reflection and a result of our longstanding focus on and commitment to patient safety and quality care.”

Valley’s lowest grades were in ensuring that “Surgery Patients Received Appropriate Treatment to Prevent Blood Clots at the Right Time,” for which it received an 85.9% out of a possible 100%, and in a “Death From Serious Treatable Complications After Surgery,” which received a score of 103.99. The ideal score for that is 0; a poor score is listed as 167.33. 

This is the first survey released by the Leapfrog Group and only considers general hospitals like Valley – not specialized hospitals, such as those which provide exclusively for children. Scores are not provided for hospitals that do not provide enough public data, including those in Maryland, Guam and Puerto Rico, which are exempted by the federal government from reporting data. 

“All hospitals should report data on their safety, because the public deserves to know how they are performing. That’s a top priority issue for The Leapfrog Group’s legislative agenda,” said Binder.