The Miles campus of LincolnHealth tops a safety review of 2,591 U.S. hospitals in the May 2014 Consumer Reports magazine.
Miles has a safety score of 78 on a scale of one to 100.
Consumer Reports reviews federal data about five safety categories – communication, infections, mortality, readmission and scanning – to determine the scores.
Lincoln County Healthcare Senior Vice President of Hospital Operations Cindy Wade credits the score to the hard work of staff throughout the organization. The staff has a personal commitment to quality health care, she said in a statement.
“Their families live in this county, their friends live in this county, and when we are out and about, whether it is at church or Hannaford, we are meeting and greeting people that we may be taking care of on any given day,” Wade said.
“Staff and providers at every level are engaged and committed,” Wade said. “We have a dedication to standards of care and process improvement, and the patient is always at the center.”
Miles scores particularly well in surveys of readmission rates, which track how often patients return to a hospital soon after discharge.
Miles has a low readmission rate because Miles nurses and staff work with primary care physicians and home-health staff to ensure patients have adequate support at home, according to a Lincoln County Healthcare press release.
For example, nurses call patients within 24 to 48 hours after discharge to check on the patient, review medications and discuss follow-up appointments.
The Consumer Reports rating follows recent recognition of the hospital’s high-quality care and patient-safety record from other sources.
The Leapfrog Group named the Miles Campus of LincolnHealth one of 22 top rural hospitals in the U.S. in December 2013.
The Miles and St. Andrews campuses of LincolnHealth have received the top scores in their category for four consecutive years in the Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield Quality-in-Sights Hospital Incentive Program.
The Anthem and Leapfrog surveys also examine quality and safety at the hospitals.
Consumer Reports “is one of the top-circulation magazines in the country, and ConsumerReports.org has the most subscribers of any website of its kind,” according to its website.
The magazine and website are publications of Consumer Reports, “an expert, independent, nonprofit organization whose mission is to work for a fair, just, and safe marketplace for all consumers and to empower consumers to protect themselves.”