KDSN RADIO News
Iowa hospitals rank poorly on safety study
A non-profit that rates the safety of hospitals nationwide places Iowa’s hospitals near the bottom, at number 48.
LeapFrog ranked 30 Iowa hospitals on a wide range of safety measures, based on publicly-available data. Most hospitals in Iowa earned Cs and Ds, while one hospital earned a B grade, and three got Fs.
LeapFrog’s Katie Stewart encourages Iowans to ask their hospitals about their rankings.
“Really, ask your providers, what are they doing to improve?” Stewart says. “They have this safety grade. Maybe they aren’t doing well on the infections. What are they doing to address that?”
Stewart says it often doesn’t take a lot of resources for hospitals to improve, and change starts with top leadership.
“What we know is that it starts with really that commitment to patient safety,” she says, “that has to start at that at that C suite level.”
Iowa is one of just four states where no hospitals received an A grade.
The three Iowa hospitals that were given “F” grades are: Genesis Medical Center-Davenport, Mercy Medical Center – Cedar Rapids, and UnityPoint Health – Trinity Regional Medical Center in Fort Dodge.
(By Natalie Krebs, Iowa Public Radio)
