By Peg McRoy Glover
Hendricks Regional Health (HRH) has been recognized by The Leapfrog Group as one of the top two teaching hospitals in Indiana and shares that same ranking with only 58 other hospitals among 3,000 nationally.
Leapfrog has also consistently rated HRH as a grade A hospital when it comes to hospital safety.
Kevin Speer, HRH president and CEO; Dr. Michelle Fenoughty, chief medical officer and Lisa Imlay, vice president of quality, safety and compliance, accepted the award for being a top teaching hospital last December at a Leapfrog national event in Washington, D.C.
Leapfrog, an independent national nonprofit, serves as a watchdog and advocate for positive change in hospital safety and reducing medical errors in the healthcare industry.
Leapfrog uses the same grading system utilized in most school systems in assigning an A, B, C, D or F rating to a hospital. Many consider this the gold-standard for measuring hospital and patient safety.
“We strive to be the best high-quality low cost healthcare provider in our region,” said Speer. “Achieving these sorts of accolades and recognition just verifies our commitment to quality, safety and patient care.”
Hospital rating grades of A-F are assigned by Leapfrog every six months based on a rigorous data collecting system from approximately 3,000 acute-care hospitals. Top hospital rankings, like the top teaching hospitals, are announced at the end of each calendar year.
HRH has consistently been graded an A hospital. This is the first time it has been awarded a top hospital ranking.
“Dr. Fenoughty is the person who is responsible for the fact that we received an A grade, especially during COVID when many hospitals were unable to achieve that,” said Speer. “The fact that we are a top teaching hospital goes straight to her efforts and leadership around the quality and safety in this organization.”
“It takes a team, and that is the piece that fits so well with Hendricks,” said Fenoughty. “To achieve these standards, it takes a team and collaboration is one of our core values. Working together comes naturally for us. Pulling a team together that constantly focuses on quality patient care is in our DNA. It is part of who we are.”
HRH meets the criteria of being a teaching hospital with the number of medical students who circulate through the organization every year. HRH has a close affiliation with the Marian University School of Medicine whose students come through the hospital on a regular rotation. Indiana University medical students also rotate through.
“We have hundreds of nursing, respiratory therapy, radiology, physician assistant and physical therapy students who rotate through at varying levels,” said Fenoughty. “We get great feedback from Marian about how well we prepare these students for their future.”
Fenoughty said that they are proud of their few fourth-year medical students as well.
“We treat our fourth-year medical students like residents because we don’t have residents or fellows,” said Fenoughty. “We are reaping the benefits, too, because often they get out of their residency and want to come back here and practice medicine.”
To find out the safety grade of any hospital rated by Leapfrog visit hospitalsafetygrade.org .