- May 3, 2023
- ByApolloMD
Congratulations to our partner hospitals on their recent stellar rankings for providing high-quality care that meets or exceeds industry standards for patient safety, outcomes, and satisfaction.
The hospitals’ A-grade listing by The Leapfrog Group’s Hospital Safety Grade report is an indication of their commitment to safety for their patients and the communities they serve.
“ApolloMD is a proud partner with our hospitals and physicians as they continuously focus on improved patient outcomes and safety,” says Laura Springer, Vice President of Patient Safety and Quality. “As a collaborative team, we monitor results, feedback, and adherence to industry standards to maintain and improve our combined impact on improving safe, high-quality patient experiences.”
The Leapfrog Group’s Hospital Safety Grade is an A-B-C-D-E-F letter grade that calculates 30 measures of hospital performance, with an emphasis on patient safety.
Updated twice a year, each hospital’s Leapfrog safety rating relies on some of the same performance, quality, and safety measures as those monitored by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Agency for Healthcare Research Quality, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“Critical information” for patients
Hospitals provide their data voluntarily, and Leapfrog’s resulting Hospital Safety Grade, “provides consumers with…critical information on how likely they are to experience accidents, injuries, errors or other harm while in the hospital,” according to the organization’s website.
ApolloMD works throughout the year with its partner hospitals to maintain and improve their commitment to the safety and quality of care they provide. “At ApolloMD, we provide constant feedback and communication to our individual providers and partner hospitals on improving the quality of care for their patients,” Springer says. “Their attention to our feedback, and their dedication to improving patient safety and patient experiences, is a true testament to the ratings they earn.”
She points to their Patient Safety Organization that is an outcome-oriented initiative that monitors and evaluates reports where there are opportunities for improvement in care at all partner facilities. This helps  improve outcomes and safety across the entire ApolloMD network.
“We learn about those cases, investigate them, and provide enterprise safety alerts to all of our hospital partners. The learnings from these opportunities for improvement are communicated proactively to ensure the highest level of care,” she says.
Helpful advice for clinicians and patients
Springer encourages clinicians to listen carefully to each patient (and family member) so they do not overlook key pieces of unique or individualized information or key questions that might indicate a different diagnosis or the need for additional testing, consideration, or exploration.
And to patients, she offers this straightforward piece of advice: “You really have to be your own advocate. You know what’s wrong, you know yourself better than anyone else, and the more you can advocate for yourself, the better the outcome is likely to be.”
Some emergency departments might see 50 or more patients in a single day, she points out. Patients should be encouraged to speak on their behalf, especially if their symptoms or health history are a bit out of the ordinary or not what physicians typically encounter, she explains.
“Patients need to be their own advocates, or they might need a family member or friend to advocate for them, especially if someone is incapacitated or not thinking clearly in that time of emergency,” she says. “When possible, having an advocate there, or advocating for yourself, gives a more complete picture of your status and creates an environment for a better outcome.”
2023 marks the 11th year that Leapfrog has issued its annual safety report. ApolloMD applauds these hospitals partners for earning the A-level score for excellence in patient safety: