Extend hospital evaluations to public

By Garth Bowen

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In a June 5 editorial, titled “Shed more light on inspections,” The Gazette took on the lack of transparency of swimming facilities and hot tubs and the health and safety of such.

In making the case for pool and hot tub safety, they compared it to the Iowa Department of Inspection and Appeals Food and Consumer Safety Bureau and the readily available statistics on how our state's restaurants fared in their most recent inspections. The article stated, “Making the information clear and easy to access holds restaurants accountable and gives consumers the power to make informed choices.”

The Gazette then asked: “So why isn't the same information at Iowans' fingertips when it comes to public pools and other businesses where the health and safety can be at risk?”

We would include the Iowa hospitals in this statement.

Nationwide, more than 180,000 people die every year from hospital infections, injuries and errors. That is equivalent to a large jet liner crashing every day.

The Leapfrog Group, a national not-for-profit organization of employer purchasers of health care recently, released its Hospital Safety Score. Leapfrog, with the assistance of an expert panel, assigned each hospital a score of A, B, C, D or F based on infections, injuries and medical and medication errors. For more information or to find out the score of your local hospital, visit www.hospitalsafetyscore.org.

The Hospital Safety Score uses 26 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to produce a single score representing a hospital's overall performance in keeping patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors.

Nationwide, more than 2,600 hospitals received a score. In Iowa, 27 hospitals were assigned a score with six receiving an A. Both of the Cedar Rapids hospitals scored a B with the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics and Mercy Iowa City receiving a C.

The people of Iowa will find this information very valuable. Health care consumers and purchasers can use this information to make informed decisions about health care options. It should also motivate hospitals to improve their patient safety.

After a Des Moines Register article in early June announcing Leapfrogs' Hospital Safety Score, Iowa hospitals that didn't score very well - along with their association - expressed concerns and disappointment about the Hospital Safety Score and its methodology.

The UI Hospitals and Clinics disputed the findings, saying “the scores were not adjusted for the risk… .” The Leapfrog Group points out that a wide range of hospitals serving all walks of life scored an A. In short, an injury or death caused by a preventable accident is the same no matter what type of patient is being served.

Some Iowa hospitals disputed the findings because most Iowa hospitals have declined to send data to Leapfrog. The Hospital Safety Score used data that was publicly reported and those hospitals which did not report to Leapfrog had scores based on that information. There were 146 hospitals that do not report data to Leapfrog that received an A. Also an expert panel required at least 14 of the 26 measures to be reported in order to calculate a Hospital Safety Score.

The goal of the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Score program is to improve patient safety in hospitals across the nation. It is doing so by drawing attention to major safety issues and giving the public a way to guide their decisions. We hope that Iowa hospitals will focus on improvement and making their hospital as safe as possible for the patients they serve. Instead of attacking the Hospital Safety Scores, the hospitals that did not achieve an A should be talking with the ones who did in order to help make their facilities safer for their patients.

We agree with The Gazette's editorial closing: “It's time to expand that successful idea to other types of licensed businesses where Iowans' health and safety could be at risk.” Where is there more risk of preventable accidents and death than Iowa hospitals?

Garth Bowen of Cedar Rapids is co-chair of the Iowa Health Buyers Alliance. Comments: paceia@aol.com