Wellstar Paulding Scores 'A' For Safety During COVID Pandemic: Report

HIRAM, GA — Wellstar Paulding Hospital received top marks for patient safety during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report released Tuesday.

The Leapfrog Group, an independent nonprofit health care watchdog group, gave Wellstar Paulding an “A” in its Spring 2022 Hospital Safety Grades. The Hiram hospital was one of only 19 Georgia hospitals to receive an A rating.

The 2022 ratings reflect care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Leapfrog said its and other groups' research showed the pandemic reversed years of progress in patient safety.

"The health care workforce has faced unprecedented levels of pressure during the pandemic, and as a result, patients' experience with their care appears to have suffered," Leapfrog Group president and CEO Leah Binder said in a news release. "We commend the workforce for their heroic efforts these past few years and now strongly urge hospital leadership to recommit to improved care — from communication to responsiveness — and get back on track with patient safety outcomes."

In addition to 19 Georgia hospitals that received an “A” grade, 24 hospitals received a "B" grade, 37 hospitals received a "C" grade and four hospitals received a "D" grade. No Georgia hospital received an "F" grade.

Grades for other nearby hospitals include:

• Wellstar Douglas Hospital, Douglasville — B
• Wellstar Cobb Hospital, Austell — B
• Tanner Medical Center of Villa Rica — C
• Wellstar Kennestone Hospital, Marietta — C

The letter grades assigned to nearly 3,000 U.S general hospitals were based on more than 30 measures of patient safety. Leapfrog says its hospital rating system is the only one in the country focusing solely on a hospital's ability to protect patients from preventable errors, accidents, injuries and infections.

Included in the 30 are five that research has shown to directly affect patient outcomes, but can be improved with greater communication between caregivers and patients — the number of central line-associated bloodstream infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, infections from colon surgery, MRSA (Staphylococcus) blood laboratory-identified events, and facility-wide inpatient diarrhea events.

When there's communication about medications, for example, that can lead to fewer hospitalizations for conditions such as sepsis and blood clots, fewer complications, and decreases in the incidence of respiratory failure, Leapfrog said.

To determine each hospital's grade, a panel of medical experts selected 30 evidence-based measures of patient safety such as postoperative sepsis, blood leakage and kidney injury. They then determined the weight of each measure based on evidence, opportunity for improvement and patient impact.

Data on each measure was collected through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Information from the Leapfrog Hospital Survey, available to all hospitals to complete, also affects grades.

Currently, Leapfrog does not assign grades to military or Veterans Administration hospitals, critical access hospitals, specialty hospitals, children's hospitals or outpatient surgery centers.

The full methodology for the 2022 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is available online.

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