Washington — Washington state hospitals ranked 40th in the nation for patient safety in a new survey by The Leapfrog Group, a non-profit organization focused on driving quality, safety and transparency in the U.S. health system.
This ranking represents a drop of nine spots from last year.
Only 18% of participating Washington hospitals received an “A” grade in the survey. St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tacoma was among those that earned an “A” grade, but not all hospitals in the state participated in the assessment.
Dr. Drew Oliveira with the Washington Health Alliance commented on the survey’s findings. He explained that the grades are based on various incidents, including accidents, errors, injuries and infections that patients experience.
Oliveira said these are “kind of mistakes. Things that should not…that could be avoided.”
Oliveira highlighted the disparity in top grades, noting that “Connecticut 64% of the hospitals have an A grade and Washington is under 20%.”
He suggested that the survey serves as an “extra little push to those hospitals to pay attention to the patient safety.”
Oliveira argued that if hospitals do not heed the survey’s results, it could impact their business.
He stated that organizations might “change our benefit design because we want people to go to the places where they’re going to be the safest.”
Oliveira believes all Washington hospitals are committed to patient safety and will learn from this survey.
He also expressed a broader view, saying, “I think if we really cared about patient safety, we would purchase health care with patient safety in mind.”