Cape Fear Valley Medical Center earned a “C” for the third consecutive year from a national hospital safety grader, the Leapfrog Group. It’s two steps above an “F,” the worst grade a hospital can get, but a far cry from the “A” grade the center earned in the spring of 2021.
“We recognize that a “C” grade is not where we want Cape Fear Valley Medical Center to be, nor does it reflect the quality of care we provide and strive for with every patient,” said Chaka Jordan, Cape Fear Valley Health’s vice president of marketing and communications.
The medical center received worse-than-average scores primarily under two major categories: infections and safety problems, which include things like dangerous bed sores and blood clots. Patients discharged from the medical center were three times more likely to have experienced dangerous bed sores than if discharged from the average hospital. Almost five out of every 1,000 patients who had surgery at the medical center experienced dangerous blood clots.
Katie Burggraf Stewart, director of Leapfrog Group’s health ratings, also flagged the center’s patient fall rate, which she said has increased since spring 2021. She also said staff responsiveness was the center’s second-lowest score.
The center did reach the best scores in several metrics, including handwashing, nursing and bedside care and specialty-trained ICU personnel.
How scores are calculated
Leapfrog uses up to 22 data categories to determine a hospital’s safety grade. The data primarily comes from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the group’s Leapfrog Hospital Survey, an annual and voluntary hospital survey.
Jordan said the center’s grade wasn’t a surprise since the Leapfrog Group uses compiled data stretching back to July 2021 to score some categories. In July 2021, the pandemic was still in full swing and the Delta variant was causing a surge of Covid-19 cases across the country, including in Cumberland County. The pandemic resulted in thousands leaving the hospital workforce, though the North Carolina Health Association found North Carolina was not as seriously impacted as other states.
With regard to the center’s string of “C” grades, Jordan pointed to Leapfrog’s use of pandemic-era data and the pandemic’s lasting impact on staffing and resources. She said the medical center earned straight “A”s before the pandemic, specifically from 2018 to spring 2021. CityView was unable to verify this claim as Leapfrog doesn’t provide grades before spring 2021.
Burggraf Stewart said the pandemic cannot account for all issues raised by the safety grade since much of the data was taken from post-pandemic years. She said Leapfrog grades all hospitals using the same data reporting periods.
“The safety grade is comparative in nature, so they’re [Cape Fear Valley Medical Center] going to be compared to other hospitals nationally,” Burggraf Stewart said. “Nationally, they’re doing worse than other hospitals, which would indicate that other hospitals have managed to improve despite some of those stressors that could still very well be present after the pandemic.”
Womack, Hoke receive top ratings
By Leapfrog’s gradings, the medical center ranks below most hospitals in the state. North Carolina has the fourth-highest patient safety ratings in the country; almost half of the 92 hospitals graded by Leapfrog earned an “A” this fall. The Cape Fear Valley Medical Center is among 15 hospitals that received a “C.” Only two hospitals earned a “D.”
One of those “A” earning hospitals was Womack Army Medical Center on Fort Liberty. Another was Hoke Hospital, which, under the Cape Fear Valley Health System, earned its third consecutive “A.” While the Cape Fear Valley Medical Center, Hoke Hospital and other facilities in the health system share safety-focused technology solutions and infection prevention protocols, Jordan said Hoke’s smaller platform helps keep its grade high.
Jordan pointed to recent accolades which she said suggest the center could receive a higher grade from Leapfrog in the spring grading period. Some were the center’s rating as a high-performing hospital by U.S. News and World Reports and its accreditation from the country’s oldest safety and care quality accreditor, the Joint Commission.
The medical center also increased the number of beds in its ICU and Step Down Unit, a unit to transition patients from the ICU to the general ward. Those beds will open in December and feature patient lifts to help move patients from their beds, which could help with falls and bedsores.
“Trust that Cape Fear Valley Medical Center will regain its “A” rating for future grading periods,” Jordan said.
CityView Reporter Morgan Casey is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Morgan’s reporting focuses on health care issues in and around Cumberland County and can be supported through the CityView News Fund.
My wife recently was admitted twice within a two month period. both times she stayed for 5 to 6 days. I remember the nurse checking her for sores and other things on the first day. After that she was not check for bed sores. Nurses during the week are more caring and responses to the patient needs. Weekend staff non- responsive my wife ask for water and ice chips, after an hour I then ask for the same for my wife nothing came. I went to the store in the hospital and paid $5.00 for bottle water. We are still waiting for ice chips and water.