Longmont United Hospital was named as one of the top 132 hospitals in the country according to The Leapfrog Group assessment.
Leapfrog is a nationally standardized quality rating system for hospitals. Hospitals are divided into categories which include: children’s, rural, general, large teaching (500 or more staffed beds) or small teaching (less than 500 staffed bed). Longmont is considered a teaching hospital and is the only hospital in Colorado to make the Leapfrog top 132 list.
The assesment examines the processes and the people who work in the hospital to keep the patients safe during their stay according to a scoring system. Longmont United has received a Leapfrog A score for the last five out of six session, missing the one session by 0.08 points in the spring, according to Antony Pearson, chief medical officer for Longmont United.
“We are very proud of that. That tells me that we’re doing the right thing for patients and that we have processes and people in place to make sure that everybody is safe,” Pearson said.
Being ranked in the top 132 in the nation among teaching hospitals is a testiment of how much work Longmont United puts into establishing a teaching program while keeping patients safe, Pearson said.
One of the contributing factors to the award was that Longmont United has not had a hospital-acquired infection for over two years, Pearson said. He attributes the success to the hospital’s pre-operation procedures it has in place to prevent the chance of infection.
The hospital strives to take in each patient’s situation several times a day and removes tubes and catheters as early as is safely possible to help prevent infections.
“It’s a great morale booster for everybody on the team. The team starts with the emergency room all the way through until somebody leaves — the cleaning staff, the techs, the nurses, the case managers and doctors. It makes you feel good that you are doing the right stuff," Pearson said.
