Baystate Franklin Medical Center Earns ‘A’ Grade for Patient Safety

GREENFIELD — Baystate Franklin Medical Center earned an ‘A’ grade from the Leapfrog Group, a national, independent nonprofit that rates hospitals on errors, injuries, accidents, and infections. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Score is the gold-standard rating for patient safety, compiled under the guidance of the nation’s leading patient-safety experts.

“We were very pleased to learn that we had achieved an ‘A’ in the Leapfrog Group’s Hospital Safety Score. Our score reflects attention to training and teamwork, and successfully implementing measures to reduce risk,” said Dr. Thomas Higgins, interim president of Baystate Franklin Medical Center. “A lot of small decisions contribute to the result: timing and duration of antibiotics, removing unnecessary catheters, and putting the systems into place so that important safety measures aren’t just reliant on memory or chance. I’m proud that we are one of just 773 hospitals nationwide to achieve the top score.”

Developed under the guidance of Leapfrog’s Blue Ribbon Expert Panel, the Hospital Safety Score uses 28 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to produce a single ‘A,’ ‘B,’ ‘C,’ ‘D,’ or ‘F’ score, representing a hospital’s overall capacity to keep patients safe from preventable harm. More than 2,500 U.S. general hospitals were assigned scores in October 2015. The Hospital Safety Score is fully transparent, offering a full analysis of the data and methodology used in determining grades on Leapfrog’s website.

“Baystate Franklin Medical Center’s ‘A’ grade is a powerful reminder of its commitment to putting patient safety above all else; we are pleased to recognize the persistent efforts of your clinicians and staff to protect your patients,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of the Leapfrog Group. “We, our families, neighbors, colleagues, and friends deserve a hospital that will pull out all the stops to keep them safe. We urge Baystate Franklin and all other ‘A’ hospitals to preserve and renew your commitment to safety every year.”

Patients and consumers can access BFMC’s full score, as well as review the hospital’s past safety performance alongside its current grade. To see Baystate Franklin’s score, visit www.hospitalsafetyscore.org.