This year’s fall report card showed five hospitals in the local area received “A” grades, including Kettering Medical Center; Greene Memorial Hospital in Xenia; Upper Valley Medical Center in Troy; Fort Hamilton Hospital in Hamilton; and McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital in Oxford.
Kettering moved up from a “B” on the spring report card, as did Fort Hamilton, while Greene Memorial jumped ahead two grades from a “C.” All three hospitals are part of the Dayton-based Kettering Health Network hospital system.
“Quality is at the heart of all we do in caring for patients,” said Brenda Kuhn, Kettering’s chief quality officer. “We are honored by The Leapfrog Group’s recognition of the success of our quality initiatives.”
Grades from local area hospitals
Greene Memorial President Rick Dodds said the Leapfrog report card is further testament to hospital’s efforts to improve safety and quality: “The recognition is meaningful because it’s a validation on the quality of care for our community.”
Still, hospital administrators were quick to point out that survey data can vary dramatically from one survey to another.
Leapfrog said it determines its scores using 30 hospital safety criteria from a separate annual hospital survey conducted by the watchdog group or reported to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
But no one survey tells the complete story, said Dr. Tammy Lundstrom, chief medical officer for Dayton-based Premier Health — Southwest Ohio’s largest hospital system.
“Every survey is different,” Lundstrom said. “They look at different time frames, different data. One survey can make a facility look good, and in another survey they may be in a different spot. We really just concentrate on trying to do our best every single day for our patients, and we’re constantly working on improving quality and safety.”
While Premier’s Upper Valley received an “A” from Leapfrog this fall, maintaining its high score from the spring, the system’s Atrium Medical Center in Middletown fell back from an “A” to a “B” over the same period.
All area hospitals scored passing grades on the bi-annual report card, which showed 844 out of 2,812 hospital graded by Leapfrog received an “A,” 658 received a “B,” 954 received a “C,” 157 received a “D” and 20 received an “F.”
Kettering’s Sycamore Medical Center in Miamisburg, and Grandview Medical Center and Southview hospitals in Dayton, each received a “B,” while Kettering’s Soin Medical Center in Beavercreek scored a “C.”
Premier’s Miami Valley and Good Samaritan hospitals in Dayton each received a “C,” while Community Mercy Health Partners’ Springfield Regional Medical Center in Springfield also scored a “C.”
Not all hospitals were included in the rankings because participation is voluntary.
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