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Boston Globe
21-05-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center's safety grade dropped from an ‘A' to a ‘C,' per new report
The spring 2024 Center in Lebanon, dropped from an 'A' to a 'C.' Get N.H. Morning Report A weekday newsletter delivering the N.H. news you need to know right to your inbox. Enter Email Sign Up On infections, it found DHMC performed worse than average when it came to rates of sepsis infection after surgery and C. difficile infection. The hospital also lost points on issues related to surgery, such as surgical wounds splitting open, blood leakage, kidney injury after surgery, and accidental cuts and tears. Advertisement Michael S. Calderwood, the chief quality officer at DHMC, said Dartmouth Health has robust quality and safety standards to ensure that patients experience the highest-quality care. 'Voluntary data submissions to groups like Leapfrog are nuanced and don't always capture the full picture of safety ratings,' he said in an email. He added that in the latest Leapfrog report DHMC maintained or improved performance in all areas except four. Advertisement Calderwood said the hospital has made improvements on managing infections since the 2023-2024 data reflected in the latest Leapfrog report. He said a hospital task force has worked on infections caused by catheters, " The Leapfrog safety report found DHMC was also below average on handwashing. But Calderwood said the report's methodology relies heavily on automated hand hygiene data, which he said is unreliable and lacks the opportunity for 'in-the-moment' education. These automated systems include technology like Calderwood said DHMC is using direct observation instead of the automated system, but that has impacted the Leapfrog methodology for data collection. 'Recognizing that we have already driven significant improvement in a number of the key areas identified in the Leapfrog survey and beyond, we see our Spring 2025 score as an opportunity to focus on areas for improvement,' he said. The New Hampshire hospitals that received the highest safety grade include Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover, Exeter Hospital, Portsmouth Regional Hospital, and St. Joseph Hospital in Nashua. Both Catholic Medical Center and Cheshire Medical Center received a 'D' grade, the lowest safety grade assigned to any hospital in the state. A spokesperson for Cheshire Medical Center said the hospital has chosen not to participate in the Leapfrog survey and that the grade does not accurately reflect the safety and quality of care provided to patients. Advertisement 'Cheshire has been notified from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' annual Preview Report that it will be awarded four stars, up from three stars last year,' the spokesperson said. Facing serious financial problems, Catholic Medical Center was CMC was the subject of a 'CMC did not participate in the Leapfrog survey prior to joining HCA Healthcare earlier this year, which means the current grade is based on limited historical information,' a spokesperson for the hospital said in a statement. 'HCA Healthcare has a strong and continuous commitment to measuring quality and safety in patient care,' the statement said. 'We are actively integrating our comprehensive quality and safety programs at CMC.' On the latest safety report for other HCA-owned hospitals, Parkland Medical Center received a 'B,' while Frisbie Memorial Hospital received a 'C.' Compared to the other New England states, New Hampshire was in the middle of the pack in terms of Advertisement Amanda Gokee can be reached at
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Judge denies motion to dismiss wrongful-death lawsuits against CMC
Feb. 27—A judge ruled that two wrongful-death lawsuits connected to the work of a former cardiovascular surgeon at Catholic Medical Center can proceed after the hospital sought to have the suits dismissed. Myron Louis Bishop Jr., a retired pawn shop owner, died after complications from surgery performed by Dr. Yvon Baribeau in 2012, and a retired police officer, John William Queen, died on the operating table after bleeding out in 2013, according to the lawsuits. The lawsuits allege that Baribeau should not have been performing surgeries after the deaths of two other patients in 2012 and 2013 were identified as possible reckless behavior by CMC's peer review system. One of those patients died after Bishop. Baribeau has settled at least 20 New Hampshire malpractice cases dating from 1999 to 2021. Seventeen were threatened malpractice claims presented at one time to Baribeau after his retirement in August 2019, CMC has previously said. The lawsuits go into great detail about allegations that the hospital knew Baribeau's morbidity and mortality rates were dramatically higher than those of his partners, Drs. Benjamin Westbrook and David Charlesworth — at times more than double and in 2005 more than nine times higher. Baribeau was placed on a 28-day suspension by the hospital, but "a suspension of less than 30 days does not have to be externally reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank," according to the lawsuits. The surgery on Queen took place after the suspension. The hospital claims the suits are barred by a three-year statute of limitations and six-year repose period. The filing also says a discovery rule, which allows the clock to start when a plaintiff discovers the injury, does not apply to wrongful death. In 2022, the Boston Globe ran a series of articles on Baribeau, which led to an independent review by a Pittsburgh law firm, Horty, Springer & Mattern. The plaintiffs say the statute of limitations should not begin until the publication of the reports. Judge David Anderson wrote the "plaintiffs have satisfied their burden" on the discovery rule to start in September 2022 when Baribeau's actions came to light. "The mere fact that Decedents died under Dr. Baribeau's care did not trigger their duty to investigate Dr. Baribeau at the time of their deaths," Anderson wrote. "Thus, the information Plaintiffs learned from the Boston Globe articles provided them information about Dr. Baribeau's actions that they could not have reasonably discovered beforehand." The two sides also disagree on whether CMC should be held accountable for negligent credentialing. CMC claims the plaintiffs would be unable to admit evidence needed to prove its claim. Anderson disagreed. "At the pleading stage, it would be premature for the Court to determine that RSA 151:13-a categorically bars a negligent credentialing claim," he wrote. Anderson said the allegations spelled out in the lawsuit "are more than sufficient to meet the elements of negligent credentialing." If the allegations are true, "CMC used its peer review process negligently by allowing Dr. Baribeau to keep his hospital privileges after his recklessness resulted in another patient's death," Anderson wrote.
