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Roseland Community Hospital On Chicago’s Southside Receives An “F” Grade For Patient Safety

Healthcare and those who provide it including all the processes right down to the janitor should be taken seriously because at the end of the day it’s the lives of everyone not just the patients that matter.  It’s  understandable that every patient feels their situation is more important than others however every patient deserves more than just the “basic” kind of care regardless of where one goes for treatment. Patient safety is not a matter to be taken lightly.

Roseland Community Hospital in Chicago received the one and only “F” grade for patient safety.  Considering this hospital receives a large bulk of the violent and gunshot patients, how is it that the hospital didn’t receive a better grade?  Apparently the hospital is disputing the grade given, however the grade of this hospital and any other hospital  should be part of any patient’s decision whether one should consider going to that facility for treatment.  It doesn’t matter if a hospital  is a multi-million dollar, award-winning facility or a struggling one like Roseland.

The patients are top priority…that’s it, that’s all.

Read more as reported by the Chicago Tribune:

Photo Credit: The Chicago Citizen

A hospital serving mostly low-income people on the city’s Far South Side is one of only 15 in the country to get a patient safety grade of F on a recent report — a grade the hospital disputes.

Roseland Community Hospital was the only hospital in Illinois to receive the failing grade this week as part of semiannual ratings by the Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit that evaluates hospital performance. No other Illinois hospital has received an F in at least four years from Leapfrog, which grades hospitals on 27 measures of hospital safety, including hand hygiene, intensive care unit physician staffing, bedsores and falls.

Though experts agree that patients shouldn’t base all their decisions on one single grade or measure, consumers shouldn’t brush off such grades either, said Larry Boress, president and CEO of the Midwest Business Group on Health, which worked with Leapfrog on the survey in Illinois.

“I think they should question whether or not they should get care in that hospital,” Boress said of a hospital that receives a grade of F. “Hospital … mistakes and safety issues are the third-highest cause of death in this country, so it’s not to be taken lightly.”

Roseland Community President and CEO Tim Egan argued some of the information used in Leapfrog’s assessment of hospitals was dated and not representative of current conditions at his hospital. The hospital didn’t finish filling out the survey sent by Leapfrog because of a lack of resources, and was instead focused on gaining re-accreditation from the Healthcare Facilities Accreditation Program, which it achieved in recent weeks, he said.

Egan also pointed to rising patient satisfaction levels. Patient satisfaction rose significantly across a dozen different measures between 2016 and 2017, according to surveys performed for the hospital. “You have to judge (based) on what the patients are saying about the hospital,” Egan said.

In the Roseland neighborhood, residents don’t have a lot of hospital options. The independent, 134-bed facility has been a staple of the community since 1924, primarily serving patients in need.

About 60 percent of Roseland’s patients are on Medicaid, a state and federally funded health insurance program for the poor, Egan said. About 24,000 patients visit the hospital’s emergency department each year, including victims of violence and gunshots.

Shortly before Egan took over in 2013, the hospital accepted money from the state to avoid closure. Egan was tasked with helping to turn around Roseland. The hospital was $30 million in debt when Egan took over, and is now about $6 million in debt, he said.

Ratings and rankings are perennial sources of pride or anxiety for hospitals. Some hospitals tout their high ratings to attract more patients.

Leapfrog is not the only organization that evaluates hospitals. The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, U.S. News & World Report and Consumer Reports release ratings, each using their own methodologies, among others. Illinois also has its own hospital report cards that show safety, quality and satisfaction measures.

Roseland most recently received two stars out of five for quality from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Hospital leaders, however, caution that consumers should consider ratings as just one part of the equation when making health care decisions.

The Illinois Health and Hospital Association recommends patients and consumers talk to their doctors and check multiple sources when deciding on hospitals. “We’ve always agreed hospitals should be transparent on patient and quality and safety information,” said association spokesman Danny Chun.“However … patients and consumers should not rely on any one set of rankings.”

In Illinois, 111 hospitals were graded as part of the Leapfrog report, and of those, 33 received an A, down from 36 hospitals that earned a top grade in the spring. Boress said that may be because of a higher curve this time around as well as some changes in the methodology.

Ten Illinois hospitals earned A grades for the fifth year in a row: Amita Health St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates; Elmhurst Hospital; HSHS St. Joseph’s Hospital Breese; Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield; OSF St. Joseph Medical Center in Bloomington; OSF St. Mary Medical Center in Galesburg; Rush University Medical Center in Chicago; Rush Copley Medical Center in Aurora; University of Chicago Medical Center; and West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park.

Source: Chicago Tribune 

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