"After a decade of work in examining the quality of care at the nation's hospitals, HealthGrades is now evaluating the state of pediatric patient safety," said Rick May, MD, vice president of clinical quality improvement services at HealthGrades and a co-author of the study. "And while the data show both improvements and regression, there is a subset of hospitals that are consistently avoiding patient-safety incidents, setting benchmarks for other hospitals to follow."
The four pediatric patient-safety incidents showing the highest rates per 1,000 patients were postoperative sepsis (24.05), postoperative respiratory failure (18.62), pressure ulcers (3.72) and central venous catheter-related infections (2.41).
Of the eight pediatric patient-safety incidents examined, four indicators showed improvement over the three years studied, while four worsened. Those showing improvement were central venous catheter-related infections, postoperative hemorrhage or hematoma, postoperative respiratory failure, and postoperative wound dehiscence. The other four incidents showed a rise in incidence levels.
The 19 state governments that make pediatric patient records available for analysis are: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
SOURCE Health Grades, Inc.