Delaware hospitals are speaking out after not a single one received an "A" on The Leapfrog Group's fall safety grades, CBS affiliate WBOC reported Nov. 14.
The state was one of four where no hospitals received a top score this year, joining North Dakota, Wyoming and Vermont.
Brian Frazee, president and CEO of the Delaware Healthcare Association, noted that the state was recently ranked third for hospital quality by U.S. News & World Report. He alleged that Leapfrog's methodology contributed to the disconnect, stating that the company penalizes hospitals with low grades on some measures if they do not reply to a voluntary survey. The 2023 Leapfrog scores also continue to reflect data affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which some other quality reporting entities like CMS chose not to incorporate.
"Leapfrog uses different quality measures and performance data than other organizations, which is why our hospitals may perform better on other report cards compared to the Leapfrog grade system," Mr. Frazee said. "It's also important to interpret the grades in context, as some measures use data that is more than two years old and may not reflect recent performance improvement efforts."
"Leapfrog chose to continue its comparisons of hospital performance based on distorted data," he told the news station.
Roger Follebout Jr., director of strategic communications at Salisbury, Md.-based TidalHealth, also spoke out against the methodology. The health system's Nanticoke Hospital in Seaford, Del., received a "C" on this year's safety score.
The hospital performed above average in multiple areas, including timely responses from staff, safe medication administration and prevention of harmful events. However, it was delayed in providing data on nursing and bedside care in response to the voluntary survey question, which Mr. Follebout alleges brought the overall score down.
The hospital also scored low on the metric accounting for dangerous objects left in a patient's body during surgery. Mr. Follebout said there was one incident where this occurred three years ago, but it was "immediately identified and remedied and has not reoccurred since," per the news station.
"The C Leapfrog score, while on par with other Delaware hospitals, is not reflective of the overall commitment to patient safety in our Seaford hospital," Mr. Follebout said.
TidalHealth is not the first system to speak out on Leapfrog's methodology. James Berry, CEO of Tahlequah, Okla.-based Northeastern Health System, scrutinized the ranking system in August, alleging bias towards large, tertiary hospitals in urban areas.
"The only bias in Leapfrog methodology is a bias toward the hospitals that put patients first," Leah Binder, CEO of Leapfrog, told Becker's in August. "Those hospitals will do best on Leapfrog time and again."