SSM Health St. Mary’s gets a “B”

By
Bob Pieper
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7
124

SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital received a “B” grade in the Spring 2018 Leapfrog Group national hospital safety ratings.  While a B rating is obviously good, detailed finding show below-average performance with respect to deaths from serious treatable complications, collapsed lung, and surgical wound splits opening. 

The report also gives the hospital below average ratings for communication on medications and patient release (which is considered an important factor in successful patient recovery and avoidance of re-hospitalization.

The hospital scored below average in four of the six physician and staffing measures considered in the report:  Effective leadership to prevent errors, enough qualified nurses, communications with doctors and responsiveness of hospital staff.

Despite its unusual name, The Leapfrog Group is one of the most respected healthcare safety research organizations in the nation.

Details on SSM St. Mary’s report can be found here. 

7 COMMENTS

  1. I had wished that St. Mary’s would do better! My local hospital. Knee replacement and therapy there (when they still had it). Surgery excellent but aftercare totally problematic. Pain management terrible—would not get meds on time! Harsh treatment in recovery room. I finally left early to an empty house just to manage my own, prompt medication schedule! (Weekends/holidays are terrible). While none perfect, I am in BJC system now.

  2. I would like to see the details of the problems that are a “broad brush” swipe at an excellent hospital. I was very weak and not interested in getting help. My best friend said “GO to the doctor.” I finally did. My PC doc (Kulikowski) recognized how debilitated i was. Found a 1st degree heart block. i thought, “yeah..whatever.” by the time i returned home, his office had scheduled expedited my blood work and arranged a direct admit for the next day, Result: i had lost 3/4 of my blood and would have died of heart not having enough blood to operate. Received 5 units of blood and was scheduled for full body contrast MRI. They found cancer, did 7 hours of surgery the following day, rescheduled me for first surg of the day. Monsoor Huq, MD oncologist did advanced testing to see what DNA cancer indices wold put me at risk. So YOUR “B” hospital had the very finest surgeon Donald Summers, MD who followed my stay meticulously. I had to stay for 11 days WAY MORE than i thought, but the surgeon said i would be discharged when he was satisfied. about stability. Now i have a second site of question that will be bx in August. I DID NOT WANT TO GO TO THE HOSPITAL. SSM SAVED MY LIFE. i would have died from heart failure from no blood and not from already existing cancer. DO NO BROAD BRUSH VERY GENERAL CATEGORIES UNTIL YOU DEFINE YOUR CRITERIA. nothing in the article is more reliable than the children’s game of “telephone”. SSM has a very dedicated staff and excellent doctors. Have no idea how this all happened, but it’s all true. love, maureen

    • Thank you Maureen! Wonderful story. Glad St. Mary’s was able to provide you with care that ultimately saved your life. They also do a lot of charity work for the local community.

  4. Sad…St. Mary’s Hospital used to be top notch years ago. Not so much anymore. Their Emergency Room is an absolute nightmare.

  5. What a shame. I was there for 2 days in the spring and had wonderful care. I raved about the nurses.

  6. I can believe this. I was treated horrible as a patient. I was in there for 10 days. I had a bedside commode and no one would empty it. It was so full when I went to the bathroom my waste material touched my body. I begged for it to be emptied. With deaf ears. Since then I go to a different hospital.

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