What are Hospital Safety Ratings?
There are many companies which put out yearly reports on which hospitals are the safest. Often these reports come in a variety of different formats, some of which rate a hospital’s overall safety, others break down their reports into different headings and subheadings, evaluating the hospital’s performance in different areas. Ideally, these rankings can be used by consumers to find the safest hospital for them, but it’s not always that easy.
Many Agencies
There are many different companies which put out a set of periodic rankings of the safety of various hospital facilities. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is the federal agency responsible for oversight of hospital safety, but there are private companies which also release rankings. The Leapfrog group and Consumer reports are two of the largest and most reputable groups, which both put out yearly rankings on the safest hospitals in many areas. There are many other not for profit organizations operating in the interests of patient safety, both state specific and national.
Many Standards
Because there are so many companies with their own personal rubrics, the scores for a hospital may vary greatly. Some agencies focus on specific aspects of patient care, others take a more holistic approach. When considering which hospital safety rating, it is important to consider which factors the organization has prioritized and how applicable they are for your situation. Obviously, factors such as patient satisfaction, cleanliness or getting the right medications are paramount in any situation, but some hospitals have specialties in certain kinds of surgeries, or dealing with chronic illnesses.
Pitfalls
The tricky thing about some of these reports is that hospitals are under very little legal obligation to provide any information to non-governmental bodies like the Leapfrog group or consumer reports. Because of this, information in on these hospitals can be spotty. This can mean that the hospital is hiding something, but smaller hospitals may not have the staff to submit to the rigorous evaluation process the some of these agencies require. Also, choosing which agency you get your information from is very important, so research the provider of the data as well as the hospital.
How do I Find the Safest Hospital?
There probably isn’t one hospital that any agency can point to and call it unequivocally the best hospital in the country. Even the top hospitals all have their specialties. When evaluating hospital safety, it’s necessary to look at several ratings from different agencies, as well as looking into the agency itself. Prioritize the ratings that address the services that you are being hospitalized for, to ensure that your particular set of symptoms is going to receive the best possible care. When possible, do this check on local emergency rooms before an emergency arises.
Hospital safety ratings can be a very confusing mess of different statistics. The most comprehensive route is to look at all of the different organizations’ rankings, but the easiest route is to choose one or two of the more respected ones and trust their judgment.
Above image source: Flickr/Fotos Gov/Ba
It is unfortunate that you have not made a mention about the accreditation process for hospitals which is basically a self-assessment and external peer assessment process used by hospitals to accurately assess their level of performance in relation to established standards and to implement ways to continuously improve. The question here is whether it is safe to be in an accredited hospital, which ever be it, considering accreditation status as a benchmark for maintaining minimum patient safety standard for hospitals.