Healthy "A" rating for Lakewood Ranch Medical Center

For Andy Guz, the chief executive officer at Lakewood Ranch Medical Center, it has been all about patients, and patience, since he took over his post in November of 2016.

The patients part is a no-brainer. The patience, however, came into play because Guz knew the hospital has been moving toward the upper echelon of service for the last couple of years.

That was not reflected in 2017 when Lakewood Ranch Medical Center received a "C" grade from The Leapfrog Group, which performs safety evaluations of hospitals across the country.

"We were getting graded on things that happened three years ago," he said.

Guz knew the study was a cumulative examination of more than three years of reports and surveys. He knew his hospital's time would come. "

On Tuesday, it was Lakewood Ranch Medical Center's time.

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades, which analyze data from more than 2,500 hospitals nationwide, were released Tuesday with Lakewood Ranch Medical Center receiving an "A" rating.

The Lakewood Ranch Medical Center was one of 750 hospitals nationally to receive the highest grade. 

"It certainly says we are going in the right direction," Guz said. "It is a reflection on every single person who works in this hospital. All those people are doing the right thing."

Guz said it took a while for the grade to reflect the hospital's commitment to "following the best practices and the highest standards of care."

The Leapfrog Group uses 27 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign grades to approximately 2,500 hospitals across the nation. Much of the data is garnered from the U.S. government's Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. 

"This is the only national rating of how well hospitals protect patients from preventable harm and death, such as medical errors, infections and injuries," said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, in a release. "Receiving an 'A' safety grade means a hospital is among the best in the country for preventing these terrible problems and putting their patients first, 24 hours a day."

Guz, who said the evaluation is done without regard to the size of a hospital, said the grading system is important for hospitals because it is done with a grading system that is easy for the public to digest.

"It is an evaluation of the entire hospital," he said. "It's about the patient's experience and satisfaction. It looks at staffing models, processes and outcomes."

Guz does understand, the hospital has to maintain its lofty ranking.

"The bar has been set, but we try to get better every day," Guz said. "We are not going to get complacent."