Cooley Dickinson Recognized for Outstanding Patient-safety Record

NORTHAMPTON — Cooley Dickinson Hospital was honored with an ‘A’ grade in the fall 2014 Hospital Safety Score, which rates how well hospitals protect patients from errors, injuries, and infections.

The Hospital Safety Score is compiled under the guidance of the nation’s leading experts on patient safety and is administered by the Leapfrog Group, an independent industry watchdog. The first and only hospital-safety rating to be peer-reviewed in the Journal of Patient Safety, the score is free to the public and designed to give consumers information they can use to protect themselves and their families when facing a hospital stay.

“Cooley Dickinson is fortunate to have a community of staff and providers who make delivering quality and safe care their daily priority,” said Joanne Marqusee, president and CEO of Cooley Dickinson. “But high quality and patient safety require not only skilled people with a commitment to great care, it also requires leadership at all levels to make safe systems and teamwork a priority. We are gratified to see that our commitment to safe practices and a culture of safety is being recognized by this national patient-safety organization. We also recognize we have more to do and will continue to look for opportunities to improve.”

Leah Binder, president and CEO of the Leapfrog Group, noted that “patient safety needs to be a 24/7 priority for hospitals, as errors and infections are all too common and often deadly. We commend the ‘A’ hospitals, including Cooley Dickinson Hospital, for helping us to raise the standards of healthcare nationwide, and demonstrating that they’ve made the well-being of patients a top priority.”