UNMH CEO talks SRMC safety grade improvement

BERNALILLO — University of New Mexico Sandoval Regional Medical Center has made some improvements, and the proof is in the pudding with its new Leapfrog Safety Grade score.

University of New Mexico Hospitals CEO Kate Becker informed the public during her presentation to Sandoval County Commissioners July 23 about a general update on the hospital. The grade improved from a “D” to a “B.”

“... which is fantastic, and that’s actually up to two letter grades since fall of 2023, so we’re really happy about that,” she said.

Commissioner Josh Jones asked why there was a two-letter grade jump for SRMC. Becker said there were several big reasons.

“The first big thing is on the outcome side, is that COVID-era data started to roll up,” she said.

She added that now that most of the challenges from COVID aren’t present in the population, the hospital has benefitted.

“From a process perspective, our code medication administration really helped, computerized sufficient (doctor) order entries, really focusing on making sure everybody that had that was using it in an effective way and then really focusing on specific infection areas and infection prevention,” she said.The Leapfrog scoring focusses on five major areas, including infections, surgery, safety, practices to prevent errors, and staff.

For infections, SRMC did not provide data for staph infections and surgical site infections after colon surgery. However, its scores were average or better than average for diff, blood, urinary tract and sepsis infections.

In the Problems with Surgery section, SRMC did not provide data for death from serious treatable complications and scored worse than average in surgical wounds splitting open. It scored average or better than average in objects left in the body, blood leakage, kidney injuries after surgery, serious breathing problems and accidental cuts and tears.

All parts were reported for safety, but SRMC scored worse than average for patient falls and injuries. Harmful events, dangerous bed sores, falls causing broken hips, collapsed lungs, dangerous blood clots and air or gas bubbles in the blood stream were all average or better than average.

SRMC had two worse-than-average scores in the practices to prevent errors category: safe medication administration and hand washing. Doctor medication orders, medication communication, discharge communication, and staff working together to prevent errors were average or better than average.

Staff responsiveness was worse than average, but all other categories under staff, including leadership, nursing and bedside care, specialty doctors in ICU, doctor communication and nurse communication, all got average or better-than-average scores.

These scores were calculated for the 2021-23 time period. The areas that weren’t reported were due to the hospital not having any data to share. The improvement was announced in May this year for both UNM hospitals. UNM Hospital Downtown improved from an “F” rating and to a “C.”

For more information, visit leapfroggroup.org.