Hospital Safety Scores
According to the Patient Safety Journal, 440,000 individuals die in the U.S. each year from medical errors. This means that medical errors are the third leading cause of death in this country. The Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit devoted to improving health care quality, safety and transparency, recently published its 2014 Hospital Safety Score for U.S. Hospitals. This survey assigns each hospital a letter grade based on the ability to prevent errors, injuries and infections. In Vermont, Central Vermont Medical Center and Southwestern Vermont Medical Center both received “C” grades. Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, Northwestern Medical Center and the University of Vermont Medical Center (formerly, Fletcher Allen Health Care) all received “B” grades. (more…)