Orlando Health South Lake Hospital has earned its sixth consecutive A grade from the Leapfrog Group, an independent national organization committed to healthcare quality and patient safety. Orlando Health South Lake was also named this week to the Fortune/IBM Watson Health 100 Top Hospitals® list in the medium community hospital category and, in addition, received special recognition as an Everest Award winner. Everest Award winners are hospitals that earned the Fortune/IBM Watson Health 100 Top Hospitals designation and had the highest rates of improvement during a five-year period. Orlando Health South Lake is one of only 20 hospitals to receive the Everest Award and one of only two in the medium community hospital category. The annual list recognizes excellence in clinical outcomes, operational efficiency, patient experience, and financial health.
Orlando Health South Seminole Hospital has earned its third consecutive A grade from the Leapfrog Group and was named to the Fortune/IBM Watson Health 100 Top Hospitals® list in the teaching hospital category along with Orlando Health Orlando Regional Medical Center, Orlando Health Dr. P. Phillips Hospital, Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and Orlando Health Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies. This marks the fourth time Orlando Health hospitals have been recognized as 100 Top Hospital winners.
“Providing quality healthcare to patients has always been our top priority,” said David Strong, president & CEO, Orlando Health. “We are extremely pleased at receiving these prestigious recognitions. They serve as validation for all of the hard work put forth, and successes achieved, by our physicians and team members in an effort to make Orlando Health the highest quality healthcare organization in the southeastern United States.”
The Leapfrog Group assigns more than 2,600 U.S. hospitals an individual ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’ or ‘F’ grade every six months. Grades are based on hospital performance in preventing medical errors, injuries, accidents, infections and other harms to patients in their care.
Three Orlando Health Hospitals received B grades from the Leapfrog Group - Orlando Health Dr. P. Phillips Hospital, Orlando Health – Health Central Hospital and Orlando Health Orlando Regional Medical Center. Orlando Health St. Cloud Hospital, which was acquired by the organization in July 2020, received a C grade.
Bayfront Health St. Petersburg, which was acquired by Orlando Health in October 2020, received a D grade based on 2019 data submitted by the previous owners. Immediately upon assuming operations of that hospital, Orlando Health conducted a full assessment of healthcare quality and made significant changes that have, in just six months, resulted in improvements in the following areas:
- A 16.4 percent reduction in hospital acquired infections
- A 5.3 percent improvement in patient safety
- Improvements in several key measures related to patient experience:
- Physician communication improved nearly 10 percent
- Responsiveness improved nearly six percent
- Willingness to recommend the hospital improved by more than five percent
- Nurse communications improved nearly four percent
Due to the lag in data capture and reporting by national hospital rating services such as The Leapfrog Group, Bayfront Health St. Petersburg will not be 100 percent free of previous owners’ data until at least 2023, and in some cases 2026.
“We will continue to work as quickly and as thoroughly as possible to enhance quality for patients, the hospital and the St. Petersburg community,” added John Moore, president, Bayfront Health St. Petersburg.
