St. Joseph’s Hospital-South photo
St. Joseph’s Hospital-South, part of the BayCare Health System, is at 6901 Simmons Loop in Riverivew.

St. Joseph’s Hospital-South gets ‘A’ rating from safety group

By LINDA CHION KENNEY
In a report that grades hospital workers on their efforts to provide safer health care and to protect patients from harm, an independent national watchdog organization has given its highest ranking to St. Joseph’s Hospital-South in Riverview.
The Leapfrog Group in its Fall 2020 report gave an “A” rating to six hospitals in Hillsborough County, including St. Joseph’s Hospital-South in Riverview, at 6901 Simmons Loop. Also receiving the top rating were St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa, Brandon Regional Hospital, AdventHealth Carrollwood, AdventHealth Tampa and South Florida Baptist Hospital in Plant City.

Overall for 2020, St. Joseph’s Hospital-South received “A” grades for the spring and fall, a marked improvement from its “C” grades for both time periods in 2019. The hospital in 2018 received a “B” grade for the spring and an “A” grade for the fall.

“The recognition from Leapfrog is an exceptional barometer of our adherence and commitment to clinical excellence and safety,” said Philip Minden, St. Joseph’s Hospital-South president, in prepared remarks for the Fall 2020 grade report. “Our medical staff and team members in every department at every level were important and key contributors in this achievement. We have successful protocols and procedures that are steadfastly carried out and that has been verified by Leapfrog with our ‘A’ grade.”

According to a St. Joseph’s Hospital-South news report, Leapfrog’s grading system for all general hospitals nationwide, from A to F, is updated every six months. Scoring is based on the hospital’s performance in preventing medical errors, injuries, accidents, infections and other harm to patients in their care.
In prepared remarks, Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, gave testament to the trying times hospitals and health care workers have had to endure during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are extremely grateful to hospital leadership and health care workers who have remained steadfast in prioritizing patient safety as our nation battles COVID-19,” Binder said. “These grades are a testament to the care and commitment of those who work for BayCare. With the current pandemic exposing existing flaws within the U.S. health care system, we appreciate your putting patient safety first. Lives depend on it.”

As part of the BayCare Health System, St. Joseph’s Hospital-South opened in February 2015 with an all-digital, state-of-the-art facility, featuring private patient suites, emergency care, surgical services, imaging, intensive care, obstetrics, cardiac cauterization and more. A three-year, $130 million expansion, completed in February, expanded the emergency department and increased the overall bed count to 223. The project included also a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), pediatric inpatient floor and pediatric emergency room waiting room.

Overall, the Leapfrog Fall 2020 report reviewed 182 Florida hospitals, including 10 in Hillsborough County. The list included four hospitals that received a “B” grade: Tampa General Hospital, Memorial Hospital of Tampa and St. Joseph’s Hospital-North in Lutz. Also on the “B” list was South Bay Hospital in Sun City Center, at 4016 Sun City Center Blvd. The hospital in Sun City received “B” grades for both grading periods in 2018 through 2020, which marked an ongoing improvement from the “C” grades it received in 2017.

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade reportedly uses up to 27 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign grades to more than 2,600 acute-care hospitals in the United States twice per year. The methodology used is peer-reviewed and fully transparent, and the results are free to the public.
In the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade reports available online, scores in five categories are given for each hospital, compared to the overall best, average and worst hospital scores in that same category. Moreover, each category has sub-categories, with performance ranked from below average to above average. The five overall categories are infections; problems with surgery; practices to prevent errors; safety problems; and doctors, nurses and hospital staff.
In that category, St. Joseph’s Hospital-South ranked above average in each of the five sub-categories: effective leadership to prevent errors, enough qualified nurses, specially trained doctors’ care for ICU patients, communication with nurses and responsiveness of hospital staff. It ranked average in the sixth sub-category, for communication with doctors.

In the “infections” category, St. Joseph’s Hospital-South ranked above average for safety measures concerning MRSA infection, C. diff (clostridium difficile) infection, infection in the blood and surgical site infection after colon surgery. It ranked below average in the measure concerning infection in the urinary tract.
In the “problems with surgery” category, St. Joseph’s Hospital-South ranked above average in safety measures concerning dangerous object left in patient’s body, death from serious treatable complications, collapsed lung and dangerous blood clot. It ranked below average in surgical wounds split open, accidental cuts and tears, and serious breathing problem.

In the “safety problems” category, St. Joseph’s Hospital-South ranked above average in safety measures concerning dangerous bed sores and air or gas bubble in the blood, and below average in patient falls and injuries.

In the “practices to prevent errors” category, St. Joseph’s Hospital-South ranked above average in all six sub-categories: doctors order medications through a computer, safe medication administration, hand-washing, communication about medicines, communication about discharge,and staff work together to prevent errors.
To see full grade details for general hospitals locally and nationwide, and for patient tips for staying safe in the hospital, visit www.hospitalsafetygrade.org.

St. Joseph’s Hospital-South photo
Team members of the St. Joseph’s Hospital-South in Riverview, where staff earned an above average rating for working together to prevent errors.