Hospital Safety Grades 2021: How Did Cooper Fare

Several New Jersey 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.

Cooper University Hospital received a B. Here’s how the hospital’s grade breaks down:

Infections

• MRSA Infections: Below Average
• C. Diff Infections: Below Average
• Infections in the Blood: Below Average
• Urinary Tract Infections: Below Average
• Surgical Site Infection After Colon Surgery: Below Average

Problems With Surgery

• Dangerous Object Left in Patient’s Body: Above Average
• Surgical Wound Splits Open: Above Average
• Death From Serious Treatable Complications: Above Average
• Collapsed Lungs: Above Average
• Serious Breathing Problems: Above Average
• Dangerous Blood Clots: Below Average
• Accidental Cuts and Tears: Above Average

Preventing Errors

• Doctors Order Medications Through a Computer: Above Average
• Safe Medication Administration: Above Average
• Communication About Medicines: Above Average
• Communication About Discharge: Below Average
• Staff Working Together to Prevent Errors: Above Average

Safety Problems

• Dangerous Bed Scores: Above Average
• Patient Falls and Injuries: Below Average
• Air of Gas Bubble in the Blood: Above Average
• Doctors, Nurses and Hospital Staff
• Effective Leadership To Prevent Errors: Above Average
• Enough Qualified Nurses: Above Average
• Specially Trained Doctors Care For ICU Patients: Above Average
• Communication With Doctors: Below Average
• Communication With Nurses: Average
• Responsiveness of Hospital Staff: Below Average

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 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. 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.

The goal of the Hospital Safety Grade is to reduce deaths caused by hospital errors and injuries.

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.

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.