AdventHealth Lake Wales Achieves Leapfrog Grade “B” in Patient Safety

May 10, 2022 — (May 10, 2022) Lake Wales, FL – AdventHealth Lake Wales has achieved a “B” patient safety grade by the prestigious Leapfrog Group. The safety grade is awarded based on a hospital’s performance in preventing medical errors, injuries, accidents, infections, and other harms to patients in their care. The Leapfrog Group, an independent national watchdog organization, assigns an “A,” “B,” “C,” “D,” or “F” grade to general hospitals across the country.

AdventHealth implemented and enhanced several division-wide processes to keep patients safe, including, elevating best practices in bar code scanning as a safety net to assure that the right patient receives the right medication every time. This effort is just one of the many initiatives in place to ensure patient safety.

“We are committed to providing the highest quality of care for every patient and family choosing our services,” said Royce Brown, CEO of AdventHealth Lake Wales. “Our team has worked extremely hard to raise the bar on how we’re caring for patients and this honor from the Leapfrog Group highlights our ongoing dedication to create a culture of safety for anyone in our care.”

Leaders at AdventHealth Lake Wales implemented a list of additional initiatives to enhance patient safety, including:

• Enacting protocols to standardize best practices in patient care, specifically in central lines.
• Instituting stronger nursing communication when rounding to assist patients with a better understanding of discharge orders and after care plans.

“It takes an entire team to create a culture of safety and I can’t think of a better group of clinicians and staff to share this journey with than our team here at AdventHealth Lake Wales,” said Imee Unto, Chief Nursing Officer of AdventHealth Lake Wales. “This is just the beginning of our work to continue to reduce infections and improve the safety of every patient, every time.”

The Leapfrog Group awarded AdventHealth the Emerald Award for Outstanding Achievement by a Health Care System, a first for any health system. The achievement honors AdventHealth’s performance across Leapfrog’s Hospital Safety Grades and Top Hospital award, which is one of the most competitive quality awards a hospital and its team members can receive.