Safety at Carteret Health Reaffirmed with Top A Rating

Carteret Health Care has once again been awarded an “A” by an elite national ratings program, The Leapfrog Group. An announcement by the group shows Carteret Health Care received its third consecutive top ranking “A” for safety. Carteret’s Hospital Safety Score is 3.34 in the latest release for hospitals across the country and the highest grade awarded to hospitals for keeping patients safe from errors, injuries, accidents and infections.

“Patient safety requires persistent vigilance,” said Carteret Health Care CEO Dick Brvenik.
“We are proud to be amongst an elite group of hospitals that are providing quality care and that our hospital continues to receive well-deserved recognition for putting patients’ safety first.”

Only 32% of hospitals in the nation were recognized with an A Safety Score this fall. Carteret Health Care’s 3.34 score is well above the minimum A normalized Hospital Safety Score of 3.16 as indicated by The Leapfrog Group. From all the states in our nation, North Carolina ranked 5th with a higher percentage of A hospitals in our state at 55.1%. Using 30 evidence-based measures of patient safety, The Leapfrog Group calculated a numerical score for all eligible hospitals in the US. The numerical score was then converted in to one of five letter grades from A to F with A representing the best Hospital Safety Score.

For Carteret Health Care, this comes after other achievements such as being recognized as a Top 100 Rural & Community Hospital by iVantage Health Analytics and for receiving the most Get With The Guideline awards of any North Carolina hospital for heart failure, stroke, atrial fibrillation and resuscitation care. Equally notable announcements include care excellence awards by The Joint Commission for Hospital Accreditation for stroke and joint procedures.

The Leapfrog Group is a not for profit organization that provides free information for the benefit of the public on hospital compliance with process measures, structural measures and outcome measures to help patients make best choices in selecting hospitals. The report uses some readily available data such as the CMS core measures, data from the American Hospital Association, and the Leapfrog Group’s own surveys.

“This score is a powerful reflection of our continuous commitment to quality and safe care and is an impressive accomplishment for each and every staff member associated with Carteret Health Care,” announced Brvenik.

The Leapfrog Group website was updated on October 31 with these new Safety Scores. The community is encouraged to visit the website at www.hospitalsafetyscore.org to review this fully transparent information in greater detail. The hospital’s website at www.carterethealth.org/quality also contains other quality and safety information regarding Carteret County’s sole community hospital.

Brvenik concludes, “Being recognized by a national leader like Leapfrog reaffirms our commitment to safe, quality care for patients. Our Board of Directions, staff and physicians, all take great pride in these independent awards, accomplishments and recognitions, because ultimately it is our patients that benefit from our team’s efforts to preserve and renew a safety first culture for our community.”