Catholic Health receives area's top grades in Leapfrog safety report

Catholic Health hospitals receive highest cumulative safety grades in WNY in spring 2020 report

At a time when quality and safety are paramount in health care, Catholic Health once again received Western New York’s highest cumulative score in the Leapfrog Group’s Spring 2020 Hospital Safety Grade Report. In the national report released this week, Kenmore Mercy Hospital and Mount St. Mary’s Hospital earned consecutive “A” safety grades, while Mercy Hospital of Buffalo, Sisters of Charity Hospital and its St. Joseph Campus each earned a “B” grade, improving their overall scores from last year’s fall report.

Catholic Health hospitals earned two of only 12 “A” Safety Grades that were given in all of New York State. Kenmore Mercy received its 13th consecutive “A” and Mount St. Mary’s its fourth, as well as being the only hospital in Niagara County to earn an “A” grade.

“Quality and patient safety drive everything we do in Catholic Health, and right now, they are more important than ever. We couldn’t be more proud to receive these scores and share them with the community that has entrusted us with their care for more than 173 years,” said Mark Sullivan, president and CEO of Catholic Health. “I’d like to thank our physicians, nurses, clinical professionals, support staff, leadership team and board of directors for their commitment, determination and talent to help us attain these results. As always, we strive every day to achieve ‘A’ grades throughout our system.”

The Leapfrog Group is an independent industry watchdog based in Washington, D.C., founded more than a decade ago by the nation’s largest and most influential employers and purchasers of health care, to improve quality and safety for consumers. The group strives to promote transparency in health care quality reporting by grading hospitals from “A” to “F” on how well it protects patients from medical errors, infections and other preventable harm.

Developed under the guidance of a national expert panel, the Leapfrog Group uses up to 28 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign grades to more than 2,600 U.S. acute-care hospitals twice per year.

In addition to the safety data reviewed by The Leapfrog Group, Catholic Health’s quality and patient safety department is responsible for thousands of quality measures to continuously monitor patient care and improve outcomes in its hospitals, nursing homes and home care agencies.

“We believe in being transparent with our quality data so patients and families throughout Western New York can make more informed health care decisions,” said Hans P. Cassagnol, M.D., MMM, FACOG, CPE, executive vice president, chief clinical officer and chief physician executive, Catholic Health.

“We challenge ourselves every day to be better and improve the care we provide our patients and community,” Sullivan added. “We welcome the opportunity to compare ourselves against the top performing hospitals in the country to raise the bar here in Western New York and ensure our patients receive the highest quality care.”

For more information on hospital safety, as well as individual hospital grades and rankings, visit www.hospitalsafetygrade.org.

From delivering more than 6,000 babies each year; to offering the area’s widest network of comprehensive cardiac, stroke and orthopedic services; to providing a broad range of services for aging seniors; Catholic Health cares for hundreds of thousands of Western New Yorkers at dozens of locations throughout Erie and Niagara counties. Its health care network includes Kenmore Mercy Hospital, Mercy Hospital of Buffalo, Mount St. Mary’s Hospital, and Sisters of Charity Hospital and its St. Joseph Campus; along with a complete continuum of home and community-based care services, including skilled nursing and subacute rehab facilities, home care agencies, and diagnostic and treatment centers. For more information, visit www.chsbuffalo.org.