Shannon Medical Center receives ‘A’ hospital safety grade from The Leapfrog Group
Shannon Medical Center receives ‘A’ grade in hospital safety
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The news: Shannon Medical Center on 120 East Harris received an “A” Hospital Safety Grade from The Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit upholding the standard of patient safety in hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers. This national distinction celebrates Shannon’s achievements in prioritizing patient safety by protecting patients from preventable harm and errors. The new grades reflect performance primarily during the height of the pandemic. By comparison, Hendrick Health System and Hendrick Medical Center South in Abilene received 'C' grades. Additonally, Midland's Memorial Hospital and Odessa Regional Medical Center also received 'C' grades while Medical Center Hospital received a 'D' grade.
The Leapfrog Group, an independent national watchdog organization, assigns an “A,” “B,” “C,” “D” or “F” grade to general hospitals across the country based on over 30 national performance measures reflecting errors, accidents, injuries and infections, as well as systems hospitals have in place to prevent harm.
What Shannon is saying:
“Our vision at Shannon is to be trusted by the patients and families we serve. This recognition demonstrates the commitment of our entire team of providers and staff to make protecting our patients their first priority. We want our patients to feel confident that when they need us, they can trust we will provide safe, high quality care and service. I want to thank our entire organization for their dedication to excellence and focus on always improving care for our patients.” - Shane Plymell, President and CEO at Shannon.
What The Leapfrog Group is saying:
“This new update of Hospital Safety Grades shows that, at the national level, we saw deterioration in patient safety with the pandemic. But this hospital received an ‘A’ despite those challenges. I congratulate all the leaders, staff, volunteers, and clinicians who together made that possible.” - Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group.
Why it matters: The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is the only hospital ratings program based exclusively on hospital prevention of medical errors and harm to patients. The grading system is peer-reviewed, fully transparent and free to the public. That Shannon Medical Center earned this grade during the height of the pandemic is even more impressive. They took preventative care and raised it to another level during a high stress time in the medical field worldwide.
Zoom out: Shannon South, freshly acquired by Shannon, scored a “B” in the Spring 2022 grade.
Yes, but: Shannon has improved facilities and invested many resources into Shannon South to make it on par with Shannon Medical Center. The expectation is that Shannon South will be graded as an “A” soon.
