Jewish and U of L Louisville Hospitals Receive Low Safety Scores

Two hospitals in the Louisville area have received low scores from a nonprofit that grades hospital safety ratings. Jewish Hospital and University of Louisville Hospital, or U of L Hospital, both received D grades from the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade.

Both hospitals weren’t able to raise their scores this year, having maintained the D grade from 2016. This is unfortunate, because the medical care centers are trying to make their facility safer for their patients.

Before looking into the hospitals, let’s get a better understanding of Leapfrog and what they look into.

What Is Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade?

Leapfrog looks at 2,600 acute-care hospitals in the United States twice a year. They have an Expert Panel with accomplished doctors and people who work in health care to determine how to score the hospitals.

Leapfrog takes safety data and determines the scoring depending on evidence, room for improvement, and impact. The measures typically fall into two categories:

• Process/Structural Measures. The process part of this category refers to the hospital giving patients recommended treatment for the patient’s condition or procedure. Leapfrog mentions that they look at the hospital staff’s responsiveness and will look at patient feedback to see how long patients have to wait to get help from staff. The structural part of the category is about the environment where patients receive care. Leapfrog gives the example of a doctor ordering medication through a computer because the hospital would need a system to prevent prescription errors.
• Outcome Measures. This category is about the patients receiving care. This could apply to whether or not the hospital has made surgical errors, and a tool was left in the patient’s body after surgery.

Taking all the data into account, Leapfrog can give an accurate grade to the hospital. So what’s making Jewish Hospital and U of L Hospital struggle?

Looking at Jewish and University of Louisville Hospitals

Jewish Hospital was graded below average by Leapfrog on medication administration and surgery patients experiencing blood clots. However, there were some areas where they were graded above average, such as taking measures when it comes to dealing with bed sores and MRSA infections.

U of L was below average on infections and surgery issues, which includes death. They were also above average with bed sore measures, and they have doctors with special training in the intensive care unit.

However, it should be noted that U of L Hospital recently split from KentuckyOne Health, which also owns Jewish Hospital. U of L representatives say that the grade reflects the work of a previous administration, and the new administrative team the hospital has now isn’t responsible for those operations. This could mean that U of L is under better leadership and may receive a higher grade at the next evaluation.

KentuckyOne has other hospitals with better Leapfrog grades. Jewish Hospital Shelbyville has a B grade and Sts. Mary and Elizabeth Hospital went from a D to a C.

Thomas Law Offices in Louisville, Kentucky

It’s vital for hospitals to provide the best care possible for their patients and have safety measures and policies in place to reduce the chance of preventable injuries or mistakes from occurring. When people are harmed because of medical malpractice, their health can be put in jeopardy and their lives are turned upside down. If you or a loved one has been injured, you can get in touch with Thomas Law Offices to seek further options.