Saint Petersburg Bayfront Hospital has earned its first grade for safety

Bayfront was struggling when Orlando Health purchased the flagship hospital in St. Petersburg in 2020.

The nurses’ union reported a shortage of staff and equipment, which reportedly resulted in unnecessary deaths when infection rates were high. The 480-bed hospital had a D ranking for safety.

Five years later, hospital leaders are a nonprofit organization that evaluates hospitals across the country for the number of infectious diseases and medical errors, with a new ranking released by Leapfrog, with Bayfront’s first grade. They gathered at the hospital in the middle of the night Wednesday to celebrate with night shift workers.

“The team has worked so hard for years,” said Jim Tucker, Chief Quality Officer of Top Quality. “People are excited to celebrate today. That means everything.”

Most other large hospitals in the area also won A grade, including St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa, Morton’s Factory Hospital in Clearwater, and St. Anthony’s Hospital in St. Petersburg.

However, Tampa General Hospital received a C rating for the fourth consecutive time, despite assurances from hospital leaders that its performance would improve.

However, hospital staff have pointed to improved performance in new rankings with improved hospital performance, making them in the top 30% of academic medical centers in the country. He ranked in the 81st percentile of his fellow competitors in 2017.

The rankings conducted by Vizient are more important as they compare to hospitals of similar size and complexity to General Tampa.

“With technology, innovation and outstanding talent, Tampa General is continuously working to improve quality, safety and improve patient outcomes,” said John Couris, the hospital’s president and CEO, in a statement.

Ten of the 11 Baycare Health System Hospitals rated received an A.

However, the grade of HCA Florida Brandon Regional Hospital fell to B with the number of collapsed lungs flagged as an area of ​​concern with MRSA infections.

Of Adventhhealth’s 26 Florida hospitals, 18 received A-grade. AdventHealth Tampa, the largest nonprofit hospital in the Tampa Bay area, slid from B to C after scoring the number of blood and urinary tract infections below average.

Bayfront’s first A comes after a significant investment in hospitals by Orlando Health. The hospital has a new ambulance, expanding the number of ambulances that can accommodate 13. A new medical pavilion has also been built on the campus.

Equipment for the operating rooms, labor and delivery departments, and baby units has also been upgraded. Surgical equipment used in nerve and orthopedic surgery has been replaced, new imaging equipment has been purchased, and sterilization treatment equipment has been improved.

The company also had to change culture, said Tucker, who joined just before Orlando Health took over. Up until then there were obvious challenges to address, including the number of infections in patients with vascular catheters, also known as the central line, he said.

The focus is now on minimizing the time a patient is catheterized to reduce the likelihood of infection. Hospitals are also more successful by maintaining nurses and research staff on ideas on how to improve safety.

“It’s an endless journey,” Tucker said. “It’s an infusion into an organization that really helps us and continues to help us.”

Leapfrog has assessed and evaluated hospitals for over a decade to reduce deaths and injuries caused by hospital errors by publicly recognizing safety and exposing harm.

Twice a year, hospitals grade more than 3,000 acute care hospitals across the United States to keep patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors using more than 30 performance measures hospitals report to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

However, the nonprofit has been accused by Palm Beach Hospital operators of running a publishing ranking of “Brave Pay Play Schemes” that is “false, highly inaccurate, and honorable.” Leapfrog charges hospitals between $6,700 and $29,900 a year to promote safety grades.

In a lawsuit filed this week in federal court, the Palm Beach Health Network allegedly found that the grades awarded against 20% of hospitals that refuse to participate with Leapfrog were inaccurate, and the rating system would punish hospitals that refuse to conduct a safety investigation for Leapfrog.

Legal challenges will nominate five hospitals (Del Ray Medical Center, Good Sumaritan Medical Center, Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center, West Boca Medical Center and St. Mary’s Medical Center) as victims of the assessment system.

Leapfrog officials defended their rating system and said they would provide important information that the public deserves to know.

“Looking at the results of these hospitals’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, we see that preventable suffering and deaths are well above the national average,” Leapfrog president and CEO Leah Binder said in a statement. “Instead of using resources to file frivolous lawsuits, we need to improve the way patients are treated.”