Guest Viewpoint: Leapfrog rating does not reflect quality of care at Arnot, St. Joe's
At Arnot Health, we treat matters of patient safety and quality of care with the highest priority. That is why we feel compelled to address the recent Star-Gazette story that noted the disheartening quality ratings assigned to Arnot Ogden Medical Center, St. Joseph’s Hospital, and dozens of other NYS hospitals by the Leapfrog Group, an independent, non-profit consumer watchdog.
We are quite confident that the quality of care at Arnot, St. Joe’s, and so many other facilities is not fairly represented by this report.
Arnot is licensed and routinely inspected by NYSDOH. We are certified by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and we are fully accredited by the Joint Commission, widely recognized as the "gold standard" of hospital accreditation in the United States. Unlike these agencies, Leapfrog has never conducted an onsite review and has no official role in the evaluation, licensure, or accreditation of hospital services.
We share the opinion of healthcare leaders across the country who know that the Leapfrog report does not adequately reflect the experience of our patients. Producing quality outcomes in a hospital setting is never a completed task, and we examine a vast array of quality measures, including those reported by Leapfrog, to focus our performance improvement activities.
Some aspects of this report are based on outdated information and do not reflect changes that have already taken place. For example, Leapfrog fails to recognize that all of our general medical/surgical inpatient services are now centralized on the Arnot Ogden Medical Center campus and are no longer performed at St. Joseph’s Hospital.
There are also limitations in Arnot’s current technology that require manual edits for certain data to be correctly calculated. We look forward to resolving this issue when we introduce our new fully integrated, state-of-the-art Epic electronic health record next year.
Arnot and our entire community have many reasons to be proud of, and grateful for, the diligent efforts of our highly skilled and dedicated team of providers, nurses, clinicians, support staff and administrative professionals. Their collaborative efforts are directly responsible for numerous safety and quality measures where Arnot’s performance is on par with or exceeds our peers.
These include various CMS-approved patient experience measures, and certification as a primary stroke center by the American Heart and American Stroke Associations. In addition, Arnot’s Labor & Delivery and Maternity unit is recognized as a Blue Distinction Center by BlueCross/ BlueShield for 2024, and has consistently been a Five-Star recipient for both vaginal and C-section deliveries by Healthgrades.
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Arnot remains committed to achieving high performance in all aspects of healthcare quality and safety to ensure the best possible experience for our patients. Your continuing confidence, trust, and support is hard-earned and deeply valued.
In that spirit, we welcome your questions, constructive comments, or suggestions by contacting our Chief Patient Experience Officer, Theresa Hepp at theresahepp@arnothealth.com, or 607-737-7714.
-- Jonathan I. Lawrence, MHA, FACHE, is the President & CEO of Arnot Health.
This article originally appeared on Elmira Star-Gazette: Guest Viewpoint: Leapfrog rating misses the mark on Arnot, St. Joe's
