(File Photo: Courtesy of Walter L. Johnson II)
Press Release courtesy of Phoebe Putney Health System
Albany, Ga. – Phoebe’s commitment to the continuous quality process resulted in enhanced Leapfrog grades at both Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital and Phoebe Sumter Medical Center. Phoebe Sumter was awarded an ‘A’ from The Leapfrog Group’s Fall 2018 Hospital Safety Grade. The designation recognizes Phoebe Sumter’s efforts in protecting patients from harm and meeting the highest safety standards in the United States.
“We are pleased The Leapfrog Group recognized our employees’ hard work and our commitment to patient safety,” said Brandi Lunneborg, Phoebe Sumter CEO. “We are proud to offer high-quality inpatient care, as well as growing access to primary care and expanding specialty care services, to people who live in Sumter and surrounding counties. We are also grateful to be a vital part of a larger health system that is dedicated to continuous quality improvement.”
Southwest Georgia’s safety net medical center, Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, received a ‘B’ in Leapfrog’s latest grades. “Our ongoing quality and patient safety efforts are reflected in our latest Leapfrog Safety Grade,” said Steven Kitchen, MD, Phoebe Chief Medical Officer. “Our current score reinforces that our persistent quality improvement efforts are working and benefiting our patients.”
Dedicated teams at Phoebe Health System hospitals are working on projects which have vastly improved multiple safety metrics that are part of the Leapfrog grading system. Phoebe has also invested in large-scale quality improvement projects — such as the implementation of a high-intensity critical care model in all critical care units at Phoebe’s main hospital — representing best practices in the delivery of critical care medicine.
The Leapfrog Group is a national organization committed to improving healthcare quality and safety for consumers and purchasers. The Safety Grade assigns an A, B, C, D or F grade to hospitals across the country based on their performance in preventing medical errors, infections and other harms among patients in their care.
“Leapfrog’s Hospital Safety Grades recognize hospitals that focus on advancing patient safety. This ranking provides an important resource for patients, and a benchmark for hospitals, to determine how care at one hospital compares to others in a region,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “Hospitals that earn an ‘A’ Hospital Safety Grade deserve to be recognized for their efforts in preventing medical harm and errors.”
Developed under the guidance of a National Expert Panel, the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses 28 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign grades to more than 2,600 U.S. hospitals twice per year. The Hospital Safety Grade’s methodology is peer-reviewed and fully transparent, and the results are free to the public.
Phoebe Sumter was one of 855 across the United States awarded an A in the Fall 2018 update of grades.
About The Leapfrog Group
Founded in 2000 by large employers and other purchasers, The Leapfrog Group is a national nonprofit organization driving a movement for giant leaps forward in the quality and safety of American healthcare. The flagship Leapfrog Hospital Survey collects and transparently reports hospital performance, empowering purchasers to find the highest-value care and giving consumers the lifesaving information they need to make informed decisions. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, Leapfrog’s other main initiative, assigns letter grades to hospitals based on their record of patient safety, helping consumers protect themselves and their families from errors, injuries, accidents, and infections.
About Phoebe Sumter
Phoebe Sumter is a state-of-the art 183,000 square foot facility in Americus, GA opened in Dec. 2011, serving patients in Sumter, Schley, Macon, Stewart, Webster, Marion, Dooly and Taylor Counties. It features 76 beds, all private rooms and some of the most advanced equipment and technology available. Phoebe Putney Health System partnered with the Americus and Sumter County Hospital Authority to build the hospital campus after Sumter Regional Hospital was destroyed by a tornado in 2007.
About Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital
Made up of the main and north campuses in Albany, GA, Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital is a 691-bed teaching hospital and regional center for cancer treatment, cardiac medicine/surgery, gastrointestinal disease and neuro-science. Phoebe is one of only six designated perinatal centers in Georgia and is the region’s only provider of many services including neonatal intensive care, cardiovascular surgery and radiation oncology. As a true not-for-profit community hospital, Phoebe is operated by a volunteer board drawn from the community it serves and is constantly reinvesting in the health of southwest Georgia through programs in prevention, education and research that go beyond the bounds of traditional medicine.
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