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GMH doing the Safety Dance

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XENIA — Greene Memorial Hospital has been named one of the safest hospitals according by national patient safety watchdog.

In the Leapfrog Group’s bi-annual grade release, Xenia-based Greene received an A, placing it in the top 31 percent of the more than 2,600 hospitals reviewed.

“We’re just really pleased because the A rating, it really represents how well hospitals protect its patients,” said GMH President Rick Dodds. “This is a big deal. I’m just really excited.”

Developed under the guidance of an expert panel, the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses 30 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign A, B, C, D and F grades to US hospitals twice per year. It is calculated by top patient safety experts and peer-reviewed.

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade places each measure into one of two domains: Process/structural, and outcome, each accounting for 50 percent of the overall score.

According to the Leapfrog website, process measures represent how often a hospital gives patients recommended treatment for a given medical condition or procedure. For example, “Responsiveness of hospital staff” looks at patients’ feedback on how long it takes for a staff member to respond when they request help. Structural measures represent the environment in which patients receive care. For example, “Doctors order medications through a computer” represents whether a hospital uses a special computerized system to prevent errors when prescribing medications.

Outcome measures represent what happens to a patient while receiving care. For example, “Dangerous object left in patient’s body” measures how many times a patient undergoing surgery had a dangerous foreign object, like a sponge or tool, left in his or her body.

Only 823 hospitals received an A.

“It’s an unwavering focus on quality and it’s creating a culture of quality that continues to define where we go at GMH,” Dodds said. “We’re family taking care of family. Excelling in quality is something we like to lead with.”

The A is the second consecutive high mark for GMH, which had received a C in the fall of 2015 and the spring of 2016.

“It’s hard work by a lot of committees,” Dodds said. “It’s an extreme focus on any outlier in quality. “

While safety is a focus no matter what size the hospital is, quality and safety is vitally important at Greene, because as a smaller hospital, there is less margin for error.

“If we have one outlier at Greene, it really impacts us,” Dodds said. “It’s important that we always get it right … and that’s what we’ve instilled in our team members.”

Dodds credited new Chief of Staff Dr. Francis Cortez and Director of Nursing Mendy Williams.

“It’s great leadership,” Dodds said.

By Scott Halasz

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Contact Scott Halasz at 937-502-4507.