Monument Health elevates hospital quality ratings

Rapid City, SD (May 1, 2024) – Monument Health proudly announces substantial advancements in both the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade and CMS Hospital Quality Star Rating, reaffirming its unwavering dedication to delivering exceptional health care.

Monument Health has received preliminary communication from CMS that Rapid City Hospital has elevated its rating from 1-star to a 3-star, while Leapfrog has confirmed its increase from a ‘C’ to a ‘B’ rating. Additionally, Spearfish Hospital has achieved CMS’s highest 5-star rating. The scores are expected to be reflected on the Leapfrog CMS websites in July.

“Monument Health reinforced our commitment to high-quality, safe patient care in 2019,” said Jill Tice, Vice President of Quality, Safety, and Risk Management. “These achievements demonstrate the effectiveness of our ongoing quality initiatives, and we will continue to strive for excellence in all aspects of patient care. While the CMS star rating is still based on information dating back to 2019, it shows progress on our quality journey and using the same measurement with today’s data would result in higher ratings.”

Key metric improvements contributing to Rapid City Hospital’s improved scores:

• A 36.5% reduction in colorectal surgical site infections (SSIs) in 2022, with a 74% reduction in colon SSIs from 2022 to 2023. Notably, there have been no CMS reportable colon SSIs in 2024.
• A 92% reduction in central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) between June 2022 – July 2023, and since then Rapid City Hospital has achieved 24 consecutive months with no such infection.
• Hospital-onset MRSA bacteremia declined by 75% in the last 9 months.

“While these scores provide valuable insight, Monument Health acknowledges that they are just part of the story. There will continue to be a delay in reporting from CMS and Leapfrog,” said Jay White, D.O. Executive Medical Director Quality and Safety. “Over time, these scores will accurately reflect the dedicated and quality care Monument Health physicians and caregivers provide today, and every day.”

Google Reviews provide real-time feedback. Monument Health has an average overall Google star rating of 4.8 out of 5, with nearly 45 thousand reviews.

Monument Health is committed to transparency, and will launch a real-time quality metric dashboard, enabling the community to witness our quality initiatives firsthand.

###

About Monument Health
Headquartered in Rapid City, S.D., Monument Health is a community-based health care system with a mission to make a difference, every day. The system offers care in 31 medical specialties and serves 14 communities across western South Dakota and in eastern Wyoming. With over 5,000 physicians and caregivers, Monument Health is composed of 5 hospitals and 38 medical clinics and specialty centers. Monument Health is a member of the Mayo Clinic Care Network.