FROM STAFF REPORTS

Shelby Baptist Medical Center was recognized with an “A” hospital safety score by The Leapfrog Group, an independent national nonprofit run by employers and other large purchasers of health benefits.

The score was awarded in the latest update to the Hospital Safety Score. The A, B, C, D or F scores are assigned to United States hospitals based on preventable medical errors, injuries, accidents and infections.

The Hospital Safety Score was compiled under the guidance of the nation’s leading experts on patient safety. The first and only hospital safety rating to be peer-reviewed in the “Journal of Patient Safety,” Hospital Safety Score is designed to give the public information they can use to protect themselves and their families.

“At Shelby Baptist, we are committed to providing quality care in a safe clinical environment. Our physicians, nurses, administrators and staff members work collaboratively to meet patient safety goals. By earning an A in patient safety and receiving this honor from The Leapfrog Group, we feel this is confirmation that we are on the right track,” said SBMC President David Wilson.

“Earning an A on the Hospital Safety Score demonstrates that this hospital has exhibited excellence in our national database of patient safety measures,” said Leapfrog President and CEO Leah Binder.

To see Shelby Baptist’s scores as they compare nationally and locally, visit the Hospital Safety Score website at Hospitalsafetyscore.org. The website provides information on how the public can protect themselves and loved ones during a hospital stay.

Calculated under the guidance of The Leapfrog Group’s eight-member Blue Ribbon Expert panel, the Hospital Safety Score uses 26 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to produce a single score representing a hospital’s overall capacity to keep patients safe from infections, injuries and medical and medication errors.

The panel includes John Birkmeyer (University of Michigan), Ashish Jha (Harvard University), Arnold Millstein (Stanford University), Peter Pronovost (Johns Hopkins University), Patrick Romano (University of California, Davis), Sara Singer (Harvard University), Tim Vogus (Vanderbilt University) and Robert Wachter (University of California, San Francisco).