The Leapfrog group in Washington D.C. gave Laramie’s Ivinson Memorial Hospital a safety grade of ‘D,’ though many hospital administrators are questioning the legitimacy of the grade.
Ivinson Memorial Hospital officials were surprised to hear that the Leapfrog group conducted a safety grade on the hospital without the hospital even completing the paperwork required for the survey. Terry Roark, a member of Ivinson’s Board of Trustees said, “I really don’t know how they make their ratings when we don’t even fill out their 100-page forms.”
Doug Faus, CEO of Ivinson Memorial Hospital, said, “Leapfrog does a voluntary survey which consists of 100 pages of data, and then they use that data to sell to business to direct employers to specific health care providers.”
Leapfrog presents a safety score for hospitals and also includes the survey on their website to show how they calculate the scores. The group was created by a coalition of businesses across the US to send their employees to the least expensive services.
There are a total of 28 measures in their calculations, 10 factors of which can immediately impact the score because the paperwork for the survey was not completed. Most measures are already public as required by healthcare industries, and can be found online for free. Leapfrog charges its clients that request the data.
“They go to compare the hospitals and the data is two years old, it’s not even the most recent,” Faus said. “After I was informed that Ivinson scored a ‘D’ we put in our current data on Leapfrog’s calculator, answered their survey and scored a ‘B’,” Faus said.
“Considering that Leapfrog is a generally new organization, I believe they are trying to force more hospitals to take part in their services considering only 25 percent of hospitals currently submit to them,” Faus said.
Faus also believes that it is excessive to use a group that charges for data that is public anyway.
“All of the data we submit is public, it’s redundant to charge for that data when Medicare gives it away for free.”
Leapfrog has refused to partner with Wyoming checkpoint, a website that assesses performance of hospitals in certain disciplines, and Hospital Compare has confirmed that Ivinson Memorial Hospital is on or above average with other state and national healthcare service providers in several disciplines.
“On Hospital Compare every healthcare provider submits their information and we do well on that site,” Roark said.
“The facts are the facts, we have very good qualities and a lot to work on but we are not a ’D’. People think we are a D and people know what getting a D is like, so I don’t find Leapfrog credible,” Faus said.
