HAVERHILL, MA-Holy Family Hospital at Merrimack Valley has earned an “A” Hospital Safety Score from the Leapfrog Group for Fall 2015, as well as the Healthgrades 2015 Patient Safety Excellence Award™.

The Hospital Safety Score is compiled under the guidance of the nation’s leading experts on patient safety and is administered by The Leapfrog Group (Leapfrog), an independent industry watchdog. The first and only hospital safety rating to be analyzed in the peer-reviewed Journal of Patient Safety, the score is designed to give the public information they can use to protect themselves and their families.

The 2015 Patient Safety Excellence Award™ from Healthgrades places Holy Family Hospital at Merrimack Valley in the Top 5 Percent in the Nation for safeguarding patients from serious, potentially preventable complications during their hospital stays. Healthgrades, the leading online resource consumers use when researching a physician or hospital, bases its Patient Safety Excellence Award™ on three years of claims data from the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, as well as software applications and patient safety incidents defined by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

“We strive to hire highly qualified physicians and health care professionals because high quality training, dedication, and attention to detail are what keep patients healthier and safer,” said Holy Family Hospital at Merrimack Valley President Joseph Roach.  “We’re proud of our team. These prestigious awards are a testament to the high quality care that’s being delivered to our patients every day.”

Calculated under the guidance of Leapfrog’s Blue Ribbon Expert Panel, the Hospital Safety Score uses 28 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to produce a single “A,” “B,” “C,” “D,” or “F” score representing a hospital’s overall capacity to keep patients safe from preventable harm.

The Hospital Safety Score uses national performance measures from the Leapfrog Hospital Survey, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the American Hospital Association’s Annual Survey and Health Information Technology Supplement.

According to Healthgrades, during the three year study period (2011-2013), patients treated in hospitals receiving the Healthgrades Patient Safety Excellence Award were, on average:
• 43.9% less likely to experience an accidental puncture or laceration during a procedure, than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals.
• 53.6% less likely to experience a collapsed lung due to a procedure or surgery in or around the chest, than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals.
• 47.4% less likely to experience catheter-related blood stream infections, than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals.
• 43.8% less likely to experience pressure sores or bed sores acquired in the hospital, than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals.

 “We commend all recipients of the Healthgrades 2015 Patient Safety Excellence Award.  This achievement reflects an organization-wide commitment to delivering high-quality care and to protecting patients from potentially preventable complications,” said Evan Marks, Chief Strategy Officer, and Healthgrades.

About Holy Family Hospital
Holy Family Hospital is a 383-bed acute-care hospital with two campuses, Holy Family Hospital in Methuen and Holy Family Hospital at Merrimack Valley in Haverhill. Both locations provide comprehensive inpatient, outpatient and 24/7 emergency services to the greater Merrimack Valley, southern New Hampshire and the New Hampshire Seacoast. The hospital’s strengths include orthopedic care, cancer care, neurology, wound and hyperbaric care, behavioral medicine and maternity care. Both campuses are proud recipients of the Gold Seal of Approval from The Joint Commission and have earned “A” Hospital Safety Scores from The Leapfrog Group for their performance on national standards of safety, quality and efficiency. Holy Family Hospital is part of the Steward Health Care Systems LLC, the largest integrated community care organization in New England, which combines over 3,0000 physicians, 10  hospital campuses, managed care, insurance programs, home care, an imaging operation, and a number of other post acute services, to provide the most cost effective and highest quality of integrated patient care.

About The Leapfrog Group
The Leapfrog Group (www.leapfroggroup.org) is a national nonprofit organization using the collective leverage of large purchasers of health care to initiate breakthrough improvements in the safety, quality and affordability of health care for Americans? The flagship Leapfrog Hospital Survey allows purchasers to structure their contracts and purchasing to reward the highest performing hospitals. The Leapfrog Group was founded in November 2000 with support from the Business Roundtable and national funders and is now independently operated with support from its purchaser and other members.

About Healthgrades
Healthgrades, headquartered in Denver, Colorado, is the leading online resource for comprehensive information about physicians and hospitals. Today, more than one million people a day use the Healthgrades websites to search, compare and connect with hospitals and physicians based on the most important measures when selecting a healthcare provider: experience, hospital quality and patient satisfaction. For more information about Healthgrades, visit http://www.healthgrades.com or download the Healthgrades phone app.