NUMC EXCELS IN PATIENT SAFETY—AWARDED AN “”A”” IN SPRING 2014 HOSPITAL SAFETY SCORE

Victor F. Politi, MD, FACP, FACEP      
President/CEO       

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 29, 2014

PRESS CONTACT:
Shelley Lotenberg
shelley@numc.edu
516-572-6055

NUMC EXCELS IN PATIENT SAFETY—AWARDED AN “A” IN SPRING 2014 HOSPITAL SAFETY SCORE

East Meadow, NY………. April 29, 2014 – Victor F. Politi, MD, FACP, FACEP, President/CEO of the NuHealth System, announces that the Nassau University Medical Center (NUMC) has achieved an “A” score in hospital safety. Designed to rate how well hospitals protect patients from accidents, errors, injuries and infections, the latest Hospital Safety Score honored NUMC with an “A” – its top grade in patient safety. The Hospital Safety Score is compiled under the guidance of the nation’s leading experts on patient safety and is administered by The Leapfrog Group (Leapfrog), an independent industry watchdog. The first and only hospital safety rating to be peer-reviewed in the Journal of Patient Safety, the Score is free to the public and designed to give consumers information they can use to protect themselves and their families when facing a hospital stay.

“Receiving an “A” Hospital Safety Score from the Leapfroggroup is wonderful news for NUMC’s staff as achieving an “A” requires a tremendous amount of dedicated work from the entire hospital staff and a real commitment to safety as the main priority for all our patients,” stated Dr. Politi. “On behalf of our Board of Directors, I commend every employee for this notable achievement and commitment to overall patient safety.”

“Safety should come first for our families when we pick a hospital, because errors and infections are common and deadly,” said Leah Binder, president & CEO of The Leapfrog Group, which produces the Hospital Safety Score. “No hospital is perfect, but we congratulate the Board, clinicians, administration, and staff of NUMC for achieving an “A” and showing us that you made the well-being of you patients your top priority.” 

Calculated under the guidance of Leapfrog’s Blue Ribbon Expert Panel, the Hospital Safety Score uses 28 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to produce a single “A,” “B,” “C,” “D,” or “F” score representing a hospital’s overall capacity to keep patients safe from preventable harm. More than 2,500 U.S. general hospitals were assigned scores in spring 2014, with about 32-percent receiving an “A” grade. The Hospital Safety Score is fully transparent, and its website offers a full analysis of the data and methodology used in determining grades.

About The Leapfrog Group
The Hospital Safety Score (www.hospitalsafetyscore.org)  is an initiative of The Leapfrog Group (www.leapfroggroup.org), a national nonprofit organization using the collective leverage of large purchasers of health care to initiate breakthrough improvements in the safety, quality and affordability of health care for Americans. The flagship Leapfrog Hospital Survey allows purchasers to structure their contracts and purchasing to reward the highest performing hospitals. The Leapfrog Group was founded in November 2000 with support from the Business Roundtable and national funders and is now independently operated with support from its purchaser and other members.

ABOUT NUHEALTH
NuHealth is a Long Island health care organization delivering essential medical care and disease and lifestyle management to everyone at every stage of life.  Also known as Nassau Health Care Corporation, NuHealth is a public benefit corporation managing the operations of Nassau Medical Center, A. Holly Patterson Extended Care and a network of Family Health Centers that bring primary and specialty care out into the community.  By emphasizing wellness, cultural sensitivity and collaborative efforts with the North Shore-LIJ Health System, NuHealth is working to make good care more affordable and easier to access.
For more information about NuHealth or its Centers of Care, visit www.nuhealth.net.