Baptist Golden Triangle Gets Safety Honor

COLUMBUS, Miss. — Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle recently received a hospital safety score of “A” from the Leapfrog Group. The safety score grades general acute care hospitals on how safe they are for patients.

The Leapfrog Group is an independent national non-profit run by employers and other large purchasers of health benefits. The hospital Safety Score uses 28 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to produce a single letter score – an ‘A,’ ‘B,’ ‘C,’ ‘D’ or ‘F ‘- representing a hospital’s overall capacity to keep patients safe from preventable harm.

The Leapfrog Group annually grades about 2,500 hospitals across the United States for safety. Of the 35 facilities graded in Mississippi during the Fall 2014 Hospital Safety Score, only three received an ‘A’ rating, including Baptist Golden Triangle. Also receiving an “A” were hospitals in Biloxi and Bay St. Louis. Nationwide, only 790 hospitals earned an ‘A’.

“The Leapfrog Safety Score rates a hospital on how well it is able to protect its patients from errors, injuries and infections. That is an important factor people should use when choosing a hospital,” said Paul Cade, administrator and CEO of Baptist Golden Triangle. “We work hard every day to provide safe, high -quality, patient-focused care to every patient we treat,” he added.

“Patient safety needs to be a 24-7 priority for hospitals, as errors and infections are all too common and often deadly,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of the Leapfrog Group. “We commend the ‘A’ hospitals, including Baptist Golden Triangle, for helping us to raise the standards of health care nationwide and demonstrating that they’ve made the well-being of patients a top priority,” she added.

With 315 beds, Baptist Golden Triangle is the largest regional hospital affiliated with the Memphis, Tenn.-based Baptist Memorial Health Care system. More than 100 physicians and surgeons, who represent almost every medical specialty, practice at the hospital, which offers a full range of comprehensive medical care to patients of all ages.

The hospital offers a variety of services to the community, including the Baptist Cancer Center-Golden Triangle, Baptist Behavioral Health Care-Golden Triangle for those with behavioral and mental health problems, an emergency room with 24-hour ambulance service, an extensive rehabilitation department, and educational programs. Baptist Golden Triangle employs more than 1,000 health care professionals.