New hospital grades out: How safe are you in Southwest Florida hospitals? What to know

All Collier County hospitals received “average” grades in the latest patient safety evaluations by the Leapfrog Group , while one hospital in Lee County slipped and another moved up a grade.

Leapfrog Group, an independent nonprofit organization, uses 30 patient safety measures to grade hospitals on key issues such as preventing medical errors, infections and accidents. Its spring grades cover nearly 3,000 hospitals nationwide.

The findings for Southwest Florida had some surprises: Both hospitals run by the nonprofit NCH in Collier received “C” grades, a slip for the Baker Hospital which had a “B” grade last November. The North Naples campus was already at a “C” last fall.

Also noteworthy: Lehigh Regional Medical Center in east Lee County moved up to an “A” from a “B” last fall.

The publicly operated Lee Health in Lee, which is considering a conversion to becoming a private nonprofit system to be more competitive, saw three campuses receive “A” grades as they had last fall.

More: Hospital safety grades: Lee Health gets top marks; NCH and Physicians Regional status quo

The three are Lee Memorial Hospital, HealthPark Medical Center and Cape Coral Hospital. Gulf Coast Medical Center slipped to a “B” grade after being an “A” last fall.

The two Physicians Regional Healthcare System hospitals in Collier, Pine Ridge and Collier Boulevard, both received "C" grades again, similar to last fall.

Statewide 192 hospitals were evaluated and 75 got “A” grades and 41 got a “B.”

Another 62 hospitals brought home “C” grades and 12 got a “D.”

One hospital got a failing grade of “F” which is Halifax Medical Center in Port Orange.

What do NCH leaders in Collier say?

Officials at NCH’s Center for Philanthropy sent a letter to “friends of NCH” that said a variety of organizations grade hospitals on safety, quality and efficiency which include U.S. News & World Report , Healthgrades and the Joint Commission.

Data is used over multiple years to compile the Leapfrog Group grades and some data was used from the COVID-19 pandemic, the letter said.  NCH and hospitals nationwide faced staffing shortages and dramatic upticks in patient volumes with critical illnesses.

Patients’ families and friends were not allowed to visit and that played a role in an increase in patient falls, according to NCH.

The pandemic started in March 2020 and the federal government declared it officially over in May 2023.

"While we understand the role Leapfrog has in measuring quality, we are focused on assessments that measure more recent data from groups such as CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services), Healthgrades, and other regulatory agencies," the letter said.

NCH has received four out of five stars from CMS and Healthgrades ranked NCH among the top 100 in the U.S., according to the letter to supporters.

“Your support allows us to invest in key initiatives that drive patient experience and outcomes,” the letter said.

Steps taken to gain traction include eliminating traveling nurses and developing a stabilized workforce and focusing on recruitment and retention of top-tier clinical staff. A third move involves “daily safety huddles” every morning at both campuses with leaders from every unit to report and solve any patient safety issues.

More: NCH gets approval for new 87-foot tall heart center at Baker Hospital campus

Dr. Carlos Quintero, chief quality officer at NCH, said in a statement that NCH’s journey of quality improvement is evident in our accolades from other safety and quality hospital rating organizations.

“As our team continues to be recognized by various rating agencies for their dedication to quality care today, we are confident from our own, recent quality patient indicators that our pursuit of excellence continues to improve,” he said.

Physicians Regional spokeswoman Brittney Thoman said leaders are committed to providing safe, quality care for every patient.

"While our hospital grade stayed the same in the spring Leapfrog release, our internal metrics following this grading period show improvement in several areas, including a reduction in hospital acquired infections and a rise in our patient experience scores," she said.

"Best practices we are using include bedside shift reporting, nurse leader rounding, medication safety, hand washing education, infection prevention measures and safety risk identification," she said. "Through these and other actions we are strengthening communication between our team and patients while remaining focused on delivering quality, compassionate care."

What about Lee County hospitals?

Lee Health officials point out that HealthPark has gotten an “A” grade for the 11 ^th straight reporting period while Lee Memorial and Cape Coral kept their “A” grades for the fourth consecutive reportingperiods.

Gulf Coast has received “A” grades in 10 reporting periods and a “B” twice.

“Every day, I am extremely proud of this remarkable Lee Health team and their dedication to safety and high-quality patient care,” Dr. Stephanie Stovall, chief clinical officer of quality/safety for Lee Health, said in a news release.

More: Lee Health becoming a private nonprofit hospital. What you need to know

“These high marks speak to the compassionate and thoughtful care patients can expect to receive at any of our hospitals and push us to continually grow and improve our already high standard of care,” Stovall said.

Cheryl McIntire, chief executive officer and chief financial officer at Lehigh Regional, said she is proud of the accomplishment of the “A” grade.

“At Lehigh Regional Medical Center our goal is to provide the highest quality care to our patients, and our physicians and caregivers make patient safety and quality care their first priority,” she said in a news release. “We are blessed to serve Lehigh Acres and the surrounding communities, and we are extremely grateful to our staff for making it possible to achieve Leapfrog’s ‘A’ rating.”

The 53-bed Lehigh Regional is owned by Prime Healthcare Services based in California.

Dayna Flores, director of performance improvement and risk management at Lehigh Regional, added: "Receiving an ‘A’ grade by Leapfrog showcases our continuous efforts to solidify safety practices and address areas of improvement to continue to provide high-quality care to the community.”

The national perspective from Leapfrog

Leapfrog officials say patient experience using patient reports indicate significant signs of improvement since last fall. Still patient experience measures are “far from pre-pandemic levels,”

Preventable health care-associated infections showed a sustained drop after unprecedented infection rates during the height of the pandemic.

“Patient experience is very difficult to influence without delivering better care, so these findings are encouraging,” Leah Binder, president and chief executive officer of the Leapfrog Group, said in a news release.

“We were also pleased to see the decrease in preventable infections, which cause terrible suffering and sometimes death. When we look at these positive trends, we see lives saved, and that is gratifying.”

She said the new findings are promising but patient safety remains a crisis-level hazard in health care.

“Some hospitals are much better than others at protecting patients from harm, and that’s why we make the hospital safety grade available to the public and why we encourage all hospitals to focus more attention on safety,” Binder said.

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: New hospital grades out: How safe are you in Southwest Florida hospitals? What to know