Hospital Grades Show Mixed Performance

A recently released report has given letter grades to each hospital in the Upstate, and some of the most well-known locations were deemed average when it comes to patient safety. 

The smaller hospitals in Upstate South Carolina were ranked ahead of the largest ones in terms of safety, according to a hospital grades report released by an independent non-profit group. 

In the Upstate, the two largest hospitals,Greenville Memorial Hospital and Spartanburg Regional Medical Center, were given 'C' marks because of less-than-stellar evaluations in several areas, such as the category which takes into account the staffing within intensive care units, and the rates of death from serious treatable complications after surgery. 

Here are the grades from Upstate hospitals: 

- Greenville Memorial Hospital - C

- Spartanburg Regional Medical Center - C

- Baptist Easley Hospital  - A 

- St. Francis Eastside - A

- St. Francis Downtown - A

- Greer Memorial Hospital - B

- Hillcrest Hospital - A

- Patewood Memorial Hospital - A

- Mary Black Memorial Hospital - C

- Village Hospital - A

The Leapfrog Group, which was founded by nationally-recognized health care experts, uses a formulary system by which is comes up with a score based on a variety of information at each hospital being reviewed.

That information is derived from national performance measures from the Leapfrog Hospital Survey, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Centers for Medicare and Medical Centers. 

The idea, according to the group, is to help keep hospitals accountable and ensure patients are protected from preventable harm due to medical errors. 

Dr. Thomas Diller, Greenville Hospital System's vice president of quality and patient safety, praised the intention of the grade system, but questioned its methodology and accuracy. 

"We commend Leapfrog for its efforts in measuring patient safety, but we believe that there are a number of other report cards that provide more comprehensive, verifiable information for patients and families," Diller said.

DILLER said such reports include CMS’ Hospital Compare, The Joint Commission’s Quality Check, DHEC’s www.scdhec.gov/hai and SCHA’s www.mySChospital.org. 

"At GHS, we are aggressively focused on patient safety and quality improvement. Current efforts that have drawn national attention include a collaborative effort with SCHA on the implementation of a statewide surgical safety check list and also GHS research into hand hygiene compliance and ways to improve compliance," Diller added. "GHS routinely places in the top percentage of many national and state quality indicators, but we know that quality requires constant work and improvement."