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

The hospital raised its patient safety score from a “C” to a “B” from The Leapfrog Group.

(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.

About AdventHealth West Florida Division

The West Florida Division of AdventHealth has some of the nation’s brightest medical minds making lifesaving breakthroughs with surgical pioneers, scientists and researchers using leading edge technology and innovation to deliver our brand of whole-person care. Our network of care includes AdventHealth Carrollwood, AdventHealth Connerton, AdventHealth Dade City, AdventHealth Heart of Florida, AdventHealth Lake Placid, AdventHealth Lake Wales, AdventHealth North Pinellas, AdventHealth Ocala, AdventHealth Sebring, AdventHealth Tampa, AdventHealth Wauchula, AdventHealth Wesley Chapel and AdventHealth Zephyrhills, as well as seven freestanding offsite Emergency Rooms including AdventHealth Belleview ER, AdventHealth Brandon ER, AdventHealth Central Pasco ER, AdventHealth Four Corners ER, AdventHealth Palm Harbor ER, AdventHealth TimberRidge ER, and AdventHealth Westchase ER. We are more than hospitals, as we have a robust system of care including specialty acute care, over 200 primary care and specialty employed physicians, Express Care at Walgreens clinics, urgent care centers, wound care, physical therapy, home care, mobile mammography and more. AdventHealth is a faith-based not-for-profit health care system with a mission of Extending the Healing Ministry of Christ. AdventHealth has hundreds of care sites and nearly 50 hospitals across the United States. For more information about AdventHealth, visit AdventHealth.com, or Facebook.com/AdventHealth, and for West Florida Division, click here.

About The Leapfrog Group

Founded in 2000 by large employers and other purchasers, The Leapfrog Group is a national nonprofit organization driving a movement for giant leaps forward for patient safety. The flagship Leapfrog Hospital Survey and new Leapfrog Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) Survey collect and transparently report hospital and ASC performance, empowering purchasers to find the highest-value care and giving consumers the lifesaving information they need to make informed decisions. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, Leapfrog’s other main initiative, assigns letter grades to hospitals based on their record of patient safety, helping consumers protect themselves and their families from errors, injuries, accidents, and infections. For more, follow us on Twitter and Facebook, and sign up for our newsletter.