Hospitals in Calif., Other States Make Progress on Safety, Care Quality
Many hospitals in California and other states are meeting important safety and quality of care standards, but significant variance still exists in mortality rates for high-risk procedures and other metrics, according to a recently released survey of nearly 1,500 hospitals by the Leapfrog Group, FierceHealthcare reports (Sullivan, FierceHealthcare, 7/18).
The survey included responses from 54% of California hospitals (Leapfrog survey, July 2014).
Findings
Of the 1,437 hospitals Leapfrog examined, researchers found:
- 41% of hospitals' intensive care units were in compliance with Leapfrog's ICU Physician Standard to decrease mortality;
- 43% adopted Leapfrog-approved computerized physician order entry systems aimed at reducing medication errors, but 36% of the ordered tests did not enact appropriate warnings; and
- 71% met early elective delivery standards and fewer than 5% performed cesarean sections before mothers had reached 39 weeks of pregnancy (FierceHealthcare, 7/18).
In California, early elective delivery rates fell below 5% in 2013 from about 15% in 2010.
However, researchers also found that:
- Survival rates for high-risk procedures were seven times better at the best-performing hospital compared to the worst-performing hospital, with mortality rates varying from 0% to 21% for pancreatectomies and from 2.5% to 12% for esophagectomies;
- Rates for pressure ulcers varied greatly;
- More than 16% of hospitals reported higher than expected central line infection rates; and
- 10% of hospitals reported poor catheter-associated urinary tract infection rates (Leapfrog survey, July 2014).