Only 4 Idaho Hospitals Receive a Perfect ‘A’ Safety Grade

No one, absolutely no one, enjoys a trip to the hospital. If you or a family member ends up there due to an emergency or illness, you definitely want it to have a passing grade. In fact, you’d prefer it to be on the “honor roll” with a perfect A grade in patient safety. 

Of course, it might not be able to tell how a hospital is performing just by looking at it. That’s where a website operated by The Leapfrog Group comes in. They have a website called Hospital Safety Grade that gives hospitals all over the country a letter grade based on how well a facility keeps their patients safe. In order to develop the scale, they worked with a panel of medical experts from places like Harvard, John Hopkins University School of Nursing, Stanford, UC Davis, Vanderbilt and the CDC.

READ MORE: These Are The 10 Things Most Likely to Kill You in Idaho

It’s a task they don’t take lightly, so they look at quite a few different metrics to determine how safe hospitals keep their patients. They focus mainly on how well a hospital deals with infections, problems with surgery, safety problems like falls, collapsed lungs and blood clots, what measures they have in place to prevent errors, training of the doctors, nurses and other hospital staff and how well they communicate with each other. 

14 Idaho hospitals were graded by Leapfrog and just four of them got a shining “A” grade. Those hospitals at the top of the class are. 

Portneuf Medical Center, Pocatello

Portneuf Medical Center performed above average when it came to stopping the spread of MRSA, blood, urinary tract and surgical site infections. In the “problems with surgery” category, they were above average when it came to preventing surgical wounds from splitting open, serious breathing problems, accidental cuts/tears and not leaving dangerous objects in a patient’s body. (Don’t laugh. We just watched an old episode of Grey’s Anatomy where Burke left a towel in a woman’s body.) 

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Leapfrog says this hospital could definitely improve its number of nurses trained to provide direct patient care and how many ICU physicians are trained in critical care. They could also do a better job examining the patient's body for potential blood leaks before closing after surgery. 

St. Luke’s Boise Medical Center, Boise

Considering this is where we’ve ended up for a optical emergency, cardiac testing and a diagnostic breast care screening we’re happy to see St. Luke’s Main campus got an A! They score above average when it comes to stopping the spread of MRSA infections and Sepsis infection after surgery. In the “problems with surgery” they performed above average when it came to preventing serious breathing problems and not leaving objects in patient’s bodies. 

Leapfrog would like to see St. Luke’s Boise improve upon how many patients end up with urinary or surgical site infections after colon surgeries. They could also do better when it comes to the number of surgical wounds splitting open, kidney injuries after surgery and accidental cuts and tears. 

St. Luke’s Meridian Medical Center, Meridian

St. Luke’s is doing a good job in Meridian, too. The Meridian campus overperforms in many of the same categories as the main hospital in Boise. They also underperform in similar areas. Both St. Luke’s locations ranked as the best of the best when it comes to the training of their doctors, nurses and staff, as well as how the staff communicates with patients. 

West Valley Medical Center, Caldwell

West Valley performs above average when it comes to stopping C. diff and urinary tract infections and not leaving objects in patient’s bodies. Leapfrog says that they could do a better job of preventing patient falls/injuries and washing their hands. They also say West Valley could definitely improve how many ICU physicians are trained in critical care.

Which Idaho Hospitals Performed Below Average?

Only one of the hospitals in Idaho got a D grade and that was St. Alphonsus in Boise. The report shows that St. Al’s has struggled with certain types of infections, leaving objects in patient’s bodies, dangerous blood clots, handwashing, safely administering medication and the staff working together to prevent errors.  You can see their full scorecard HERE.