Hospital Safety Ratings

Fortunately, to date at least, I have not had the questionable experience of spending much time in a hospital bed, but I realize such visits will be a part of my life in the future. That being the case,  I was very interested in the article, "How safe is your hospital?" in the latest issue of Consumer Reports (August, 2012).


Hospitals were given an over-all safety score with individual ratings in four categories: Infections, Readmissions  (within 30 days of intitial discharge), Communication (staff explains new medications and discharge planning), Scanning ( CT scans that are ordered twice for the same patient, increasing exposure to harmful radiation). In addition CR considered a set of eight adverse events, " including bedsores, collapsed lungs, central-line-associated bloodstream infections, and accidental punctures or cuts during surgery, as well as four post-surgical complications, hip factures, blood clots in the lungs or legs, and the reopening of wounds."


 I have had several friends whose lives were seriously impacted by infections they received in hospitals, and I was particularly interested in that category since the primary cause of those unnecessary infections is carelessness on the part of the the hospital personnel.


All of that being said, This is a list of how the Hospitals in the Toledo area were rated:


Hospital                                 Safety Score           Infections    Readmissions         Communications      Scans
(scale: 1=best, 2= above average, 3= average, 4=below average, 5=worst)  


Flower Hospital             65                      2                 3                   3                           1 
Toledo Hospital             64                      1                 3                   2                           1
Blanchard Valley           63                      1                 3                   4                           2
St. Rita's (Lima)             61                     1                 3                   4                           2
Mercy Tiffin                    58                      1                 3                   3                           4
Mercy/St. Vincent          58                      2                 4                   4                           1
Mercy/St. Anne              56                      5                 3                   3                           1
Van Wert County           56                      1                 3                   3                           4
Lima Memorial              54                      3                 4                   4                           1
St. Luke's Maumee       54                      1                 4                   5                           2
Bay Park (Oregon)        53                      3                 4                   4                           1
Bryan Community          48                      4                 3                   4                           1
Mercy/St. Charles          48                      3                 4                   5                           1
Wood County (BG)        46                      4                 4                   4                           2 
Fremont Memorial         41                      3                 3                   3                           5
UT Med. Center             28                      5                 4                    5                          3 


I found it somewhat shocking that the University of Toledo Medical Center, a teaching and training facility, was at the very bottom of all the Ohio Hospitals listed. I would have expected University Medical Schools to be the leaders in patient safety. Obviously I was seriously mistaken.


I went back through the list and searched for other University Hospitals, and was surprised at what I found:

University Hospitals Geauga Regional Hospital (Chardon)   48
University Hospital Cincinnati                                                    42
University Hospitals Case Medical Center                              41


On the other hand, Ohio State University Medical Center (Columbus) fared better with a rating of 55 -- near the middle of the Ohio group. Also, the OSU Med Center was the only University Hospital to have a better than average infection score.


Someone needs to explain why University hospitals are ranked so low.

(If you were curious about Cleveland Clinic, it was near the bottom with a safety rating of 39. If interested in other Ohio Hospitals  or those of other states, please consult the August, 2012, Consumer Reports article.)