IRON MOUNTAIN – Dickinson County Healthcare is at the top of its class – again – for hospital patient safety. For the second consecutive scoring period, Dickinson has been recognized with an outstanding A rating from Leapfrog Group’s spring 2020 Hospital Patient Safety Grade.
The safety grade assigns an ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’ or ‘F’ grade to all general hospitals across the country based on their performance in preventing medical errors, injuries, accidents, infections and other harms to patients in their care.
“Every physician and medical team member is committed to doing their best every day to ensure safe, high quality care for every patient,” said Chuck Nelson, CEO of Dickinson County Healthcare. “We owe this excellent safety grade to our commitment to deliver exceptional quality patient care to our community.”
This recognition comes at an important time as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact healthcare service around the world. It confirms that Dickinson County Healthcare is fully prepared to handle the vast majority of local patient hospital care needs, including the safe and secure treatment of COVID-19 if cases arise.
“Our staff works tirelessly to provide the safest care possible for our patients,” said Nelson. “Our protocols are comprehensive, including communication to patients about medications, quadruple-checking medication orders, vigilance in preventing medical errors and infections and much more. Our A grade from Leapfrog is confirmation that our efforts are benefiting the overall health of our patients.”
The Leapfrog Group is an independent national watchdog organization committed to improving health care quality and safety for consumers and purchasers.
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