Hospital earns ‘A’ grade for safety

4 years ago

CARIBOU, Maine — Cary Medical Center was awarded an ‘A’ from The Leapfrog Group’s fall 2019 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade

The designation recognizes Cary Medical Center’s efforts in protecting patients from harm and providing safer health care. 

The Leapfrog Group is a national nonprofit organization committed to improving health care quality and safety for consumers and purchasers. The Safety Grade assigns an A, B, C, D or F grade to hospitals across the country based on their performance in preventing medical errors, injuries, accidents, infections and other harms to patients in their care.

“Creating a safe environment for our patients is everyone’s priority and we take that responsibility very personally”, said Kris Doody, RN and CEO of Cary Medical Center and Pines Health Services, who has made patient safety and patient experience a major theme of her leadership since 1999.

“Of the 17 hospitals that were graded in the state of Maine, 10 received an ‘A’ grade including Cary Medical Center. This safety grade that we have received for the second consecutive time this year confirms that the entire Cary organization is committed to this effort and we could not be more proud,” Doody concluded.

“’A’ hospitals show us their leadership is protecting patients from preventable medical harm and error,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “It takes genuine commitment at every level — from clinicians to administrators to the board of directors — and we congratulate the teams who have worked so hard to earn this A.”

Developed under the guidance of a national expert panel, the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses 28 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign grades to more than 2,600 U.S. acute-care hospitals twice per year. The Hospital Safety Grade’s methodology is peer-reviewed and fully transparent, and the results are free to the public.

Founded in 2000 by large employers and other purchasers, The Leapfrog Group is a national nonprofit organization driving a movement for giant leaps forward in the quality and safety of American health care. The flagship Leapfrog Hospital Survey collects and transparently reports hospital performance, empowering purchasers to find the highest-value care and giving consumers the lifesaving information they need to make informed decisions. 

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, Leapfrog’s other main initiative, assigns letter grades to hospitals based on their record of patient safety, helping consumers protect themselves and their families from errors, injuries, accidents and infections.

Submitted by the Community Relations and Development Office of Cary Medical Center/Pines Health Services.