Napa County Hospital Safety Grades: Spring 2021

NAPA COUNTY, CA — Some North Bay hospitals received top safety marks while others didn’t quite measure up in The Leapfrog Group’s annual spring safety grades released Thursday.

The nonprofit health care watchdog group grades hospitals twice a year, assigning letter grades from “A” to “F” based on each hospital's ability to protect patients from preventable errors, accidents, injuries and infections.

More than 2,700 general, acute-care U.S. hospitals were assessed for Leapfrog’s Spring Safety Grades. Among those hospitals, 27 have achieved 19 consecutive “A” grades in every biannual grading cycle since Leapfrog launched the safety grades in spring 2012.

The goal of the Hospital Safety Grade is to reduce deaths caused by hospital errors and injuries. Each hospital a score across five categories: Infections, Problems With Surgery, Practices to Prevent Errors, Safety Problems, and Doctors, Nurses & Hospital Staff. When averaged, performance measures produce a single letter grade representing a hospital’s overall performance in keeping patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors.

Here in Napa County, Adventist Health St. Helena and Queen of the Valley Medical Center both received a "C" grade.

Both hospitals sent comments to Patch in response to the grade.

"Providing safe, high-quality care to our community remains our top priority and we appreciate any metrics that help us improve our care," said Frank Beirne, Northern California regional chief operating officer for Providence, which operates Queen of the Valley Medical Center.

"While we fully support Leapfrog’s efforts to provide comparative information to the public, it is important to note that private reporting agencies like Leapfrog each have their own proprietary scoring methodologies, which can make reporting and results interpretation difficult and complex," Beirne said. "The methodology Leapfrog uses to score hospitals does not fully align with the depth and richness of our quality processes. As a result, Providence Northern California (Queen of the Valley Medical Center, Petaluma Valley Hospital and Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital) chose to discontinue participation in the Leapfrog Group’s reporting platform in 2019 and have not actively participated in this program since that time.

"We continue to perform rigorous internal reviews of our quality and safety on a regular basis and report our data to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS), which has consistently ranked our hospitals at or above average for quality.

"Additional recognitions that demonstrate our high-quality care include:

— Healthgrades: Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa was ranked among America's 250 Best Hospitals Award for 2021, 2020 and 2019, placing it in the top 5 percent in the nation for consistently delivering clinical quality. The hospital was recognized by Healthgrades for five awards including as a Five-Star Recipient for Treatment of Sepsis for 4 Years in a Row (2018-2021) and one of Healthgrades America's 100 Best Hospitals for Critical Care™ for 2 Years in a Row (2020-2021).

— Joint Commission: Recognized as a Primary Stroke Center and a Certified Joint Program.

— U.S. News & World Report High Performer for Congestive Heart Failure, Knee Replacement in 2019."

Here is what Adventist Health St. Helena had to say in response to the "C" grade from Leapfrog:

"We at Adventist Health St. Helena are committed to providing the very best care to our patients and welcome review from outside ratings agencies such as Leapfrog and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, which ranked us as a five-star hospital, the only hospital in Napa County and one of only 455 hospitals nationally to earn the distinction," said Tony Albright, communications director for Adventist Health St. Helena.

"We learn a great deal through outside reviews, and they help us achieve excellence," Albright said. "As ratings agencies adapt their measurements to new information, we also update our practices and strive to provide the most accurate information."

Here are the Spring 2021 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades for 16 other North Bay and East Bay hospitals:

• Sonoma Valley Hospital received a C grade.
• Kaiser Permanente Vacaville Medical Center received an A grade.
• NorthBay VacaValley Hospital received a C grade.
• NorthBay Medical Center received a B grade.
• Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital received a C grade.
• Kaiser Foundation Hospital Santa Rosa received an A grade.
• Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital received an A grade.
• Petaluma Valley Hospital received a C grade.
• Sutter Davis Hospital received a C grade.
• Sutter Solano Medical Center received a C grade.
• Kaiser Permanente Vallejo Medical Center received an A grade.
• Woodland Memorial Hospital received a B grade.
• Novato Community Hospital received a C grade.
• Contra Costa Regional Medical Center received a B grade.
• Kaiser Permanente San Rafael Medical Center received an A grade.
• John Muir Medical Center Concord Campus received a B grade.

Among all California hospitals, 271 received an A grade.

Leapfrog estimates that if the risk at all hospitals was equivalent to what it is at "A" hospitals, 50,000 lives at other facilities would have been saved. Overall, the researchers estimate that 160,000 lives are lost every year due to avoidable medical errors. That figure is down from 2016, when the Leapfrog Group estimated there were 205,000 avoidable deaths.

It’s worth noting the hospitals were graded during a time of extraordinary pressure on the health care system due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“This pandemic emphasized how much we rely on America’s health care workforce,” Leapfrog Group President and CEO Leah Binder said in a news release. “Our straight ‘A’ hospitals remind us how preparedness protected their patients as well as their workforce and created a high level of organizational resilience.”

Across all U.S. states, highlights of findings from the spring 2021 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade include:

• Thirty-three percent of hospitals received an "A," 24 percent received a "B," 35 percent received a "C," 7 percent received a "D," and less than 1 percent received an "F."
• Five states with the highest percentages of "A" hospitals are Massachusetts, Idaho, Maine, Virginia, and North Carolina.
• There were no "A" hospitals in South Dakota or North Dakota.

To determine each state’s grade, Leapfrog used up to 28 national performance measures from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Leapfrog Hospital Survey and information from other supplemental data sources.

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is peer-reviewed by a panel of national experts, and the Leapfrog Group receives guidance from the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality.