University of Michigan Health is no longer the benchmark for patient safety in Michigan, according to the semi-annual report card by The Leapfrog Group.
The report card by Leapfrog, a national patient advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., gave the Ann Arbor health system a "B" for patient safety using a criterion of 30 metrics in preventable medical errors, accidents, injuries and infections.
Leapfrog said UM Health saw in an increase in central line bloodstream infections and Clostridioides difficile (C. diff) infections, along with above average rates of falls and foreign objects in bodies following surgery to reflect its drop in grade.
UM Health issued a statement regarding the Leapfrog rankings: "A portion of the data included in this spring’s Leapfrog ranking is from July 2020 to June 2022, which was during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The grade drop was driven by metrics in care after surgeries or procedures, and during this period we had limited procedures in many cases to only the most critical patients. The pandemic put incredible stress on our teams and our systems. However, patient safety is our top priority, and we continue to make improvements and monitor this data."
It’s the first time the system didn’t receive in A in the rankings since their creation in 2012.
Of the 81 hospitals scored by Leapfrog, 25 in the state received an “A” grade, up from 22 last year but down from 41 in the spring of 2021.
University of Michigan Health-Sparrow, the Lansing-based system UM Health acquired last year, also fell from a “B” in the fall report card to a “C” this spring.
Of those graded, 23 in the state received a “B,” 28 earned a “C” and five earned a “D.” There were no “F” grades in Michigan.
“The Hospital Safety Grade empowers patients to choose the safest hospitals in their area. A patient should not walk into a hospital and become sicker due to a preventable medical error,” said Bret Jackson, president and CEO of the Economic Alliance for Michigan, a lobbying group for Michigan employers’ health care costs and safety that works with Leapfrog on the study. “When hospitals are dedicated to transparent reporting and patient safety, they are quite literally saving lives. The employers and purchasers in Michigan stand with Leapfrog and the work they are doing to protect patients from preventable harms.”
Some of the top performers in patient safety in Southeast Michigan include: Ascension Providence in Novi; Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit; Trinity Health Livingston; Corewell Health Beaumont Grosse Pointe Hospital; Garden City Hospital; Chelsea Hospital, which is a joint venture between UM-Health and Trinity; and Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital.
They all received a “A” grade.
The worst performing hospitals for patient safety in metro Detroit, which received “D” grades, were: Detroit Medical Center Detroit Receiving Hospital; McLaren Macomb Hospital; McLaren Oakland Hospital; and Detroit Medical Center Sinai-Grace Hospital.
The glaring differences in Leapfrog grades can also be drawn around socioeconomic lines.
“Health equity remains a serious concern in the state,” the Economic Alliance for Michigan said in a press release.
Hospitals that received an “A” grade were located disproportionately in communities that were predominantly white, while those with a “D” score were in communities with a higher non-white population.
“EAM (Economic Alliance for Michigan) continues to look at the trends of hospital patient safety and demographic data. Sadly, in Michigan, we find that hospitals who deliver lower patient safety scores service a higher percentage of a non-white identifying population, creating an urgency to improve health equity,” Jackson said in a release. “All patients, regardless of race, income, or socio-economic status deserve access to safe healthcare.”
