CVMC is Grade A in Patient Safety

How do you know that your local hospital is a safe place to go for treatment? In our current age of misinformation and institutional distrust, why should you take anyone’s word for something as important as your healthcare options? There are numerous studies that report alarming statistics on the numbers of patients harmed each year in healthcare settings, and even more alarming numbers of patient deaths due to preventable medical errors. The physical, psychological, financial, and emotional costs of these adverse events is staggering, making the decision on where to seek medical care more than just one of convenience.  Who CAN you trust?

One way to learn the truth is to seek out unbiased experts. The Leapfrog Group is an independent nonprofit organization committed to driving quality, safety, and transparency in the U.S. health system. It uses up to 28 evidence-based measures of patient safety to calculate a numerical score of nearly 3,000 eligible hospitals in the U.S. and provides you with an easy-to-understand letter grade for your local hospital. You, as a consumer, can then use this information to compare hospitals and to help you determine the best place to go to receive your health care. 

Canyon Vista Medical Center is pleased and proud to share that they have received an “A” Hospital Safety Grade from the Leapfrog Group for the fall of 2024. CVMC CEO Shaun Phillips said, “this recognition of a Leapfrog A rating clearly demonstrates the changes and improvements we have made since the end of the COVID pandemic.  Through steady process improvements and development of teamwork with our physicians, nurses, and all our staff, we have been able to ensure we are making Sierra Vista and all of Cochise County healthier.” The Board of Trustees is incredibly proud of the entire caregiving team at CVMC in their efforts to create and sustain a culture of quality, patient safety, and process improvement.

When we talk about patient safety and quality in a hospital context, what do those words mean? The Leapfrog Group’s website has a nice explanation: “Safety has to do with the lack of harm. Quality has to do with efficient, effective, purposeful care that gets the job done at the right time. Safety focuses on avoiding bad events. Quality focuses on doing things well. Safety makes it less likely that mistakes happen. Quality raises the ceiling, so the overall care experience is a better one.”

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade looks at data that is collected and publicly reported by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as well as from surveys sent to each participating hospital.  They score hospitals on a variety of outcome measures such as infections from central lines, catheters, and surgical sites, falls, pressure ulcers, and preventable complications from surgery. They also look at process measures, such as strong nursing leadership, computerized physician order entry systems to reduce medication errors, safe medication administration, hand hygiene, and staffing in the Intensive Care Unit. They post their findings twice a year on their website for total transparency.

Therefore, when you are looking for a safe hospital, based on the unbiased, evidence-based review of an outside organization, CVMC has gotten VERY good at keeping their patients safe from errors, injuries, accidents and infections. Cosette Britton, who has nearly 18 years of experience in our local hospital and is now the Chief Nursing Officer, stated that CVMC is “on a quality journey to focus on what matters most: our patients and our community.” The journey is not just a non-stop flight with no layovers.  It consists of multiple elements, such as focusing on the needs and preferences of patients, looking for ways to improve processes, encouraging collaboration among healthcare professionals from different specialties, leveraging technology, and so much more. It takes time, commitment, and unity of purpose. The quality journey is unrelenting and requires a commitment to adaptability and constant refinement of practices to keep pace with advancements and the community’s changing needs.

Improving a hospital’s safety grade is a gradual process that develops over many years. Cosette noted that it took CVMC at least 18 months to progress from a C to an A grade. Everyone in the organization embraced the role of championing quality and patient safety. Each change needed to become the standard approach to delivering care. Every staff member, from nurses to physicians and support staff, played a vital role in maintaining and improving safety standards. This grade is a testament to the entire CVMC team’s hard work and dedication.

Different hospitals have varying safety grades.  You can check for yourself by going to the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade website at:  https://www.hospitalsafetygrade.org/ and comparing hospitals. Keep in mind, though, that not all hospitals are required to publicly report their safety record. That is why you won’t see smaller hospitals with 25 beds or less, known as Critical Access Hospitals, in these ratings. Copper Queen Hospital in Bisbee, Benson Hospital, and Northern Cochise Community Hospital in Willcox are all Critical Access Hospitals. Specialty hospitals, military, and veterans’ hospitals are also exempt from these reports. But the major hospitals in Tucson and further away are. You owe it to yourself to look and compare. You’ll see that the ONLY hospital south of Phoenix that is rated A is Canyon Vista Medical Center!

Cosette believes that ensuring the safety of patients at CVMC, while difficult, is the most important work they do. She, along with the entire nursing team, is dedicated to patients’ health, well-being, and peace of mind. While celebrating the achievement, they remain committed to continuous enhancement of their processes and practices, ensuring long-term improvement. CVMC’s rating as an A hospital assures our patients and their families that they can trust that they receive care in one of the safest hospitals in America.

Ruth Quinn has been on the CVMC Board of Trustees for ten years (and counting), having served as Board Chair for the past six years. She is committed to helping CVMC’s mission of “Making Communities Healthier” by sharing the knowledge and experiences gained in that role with others in Cochise County.