FORT LIBERTY, NORTH CAROLINA, UNITED STATES  –   FORT LIBERTY, NC-- Womack Army Medical Center has achieved an impressive second consecutive “A” Hospital Safety Grade from the Leapfrog Group, solidifying their commitment to patient safety and quality care. One of 15 hospitals within the Defense Health Agency to achieve this grade.

Womack received its first “A” Hospital Safety Grade from the Leapfrog Group, in Spring 2024 and have successfully maintained that grade for the Fall 2024 grading cycle.

“This recognition highlights the dedicated team at Womack, said Hospital Commander Col. Stephanie Mont. “Every day we strive to provide the highest quality and safest care to the Fort Liberty community. Maintaining the highest grade with Leapfrog is a testament to how safety is at the forefront of everything we do.”

Mont is incredibly proud of WAMC, and she is looking forward to continuing to sustain this high benchmark of quality and safe healthcare.

“This grade is the result of strong leadership commitment and the daily efforts of the staff at Womack, said Collen Wehner, Patient Safety Manager. “As part of achieving this score, Womack made improvements in our medication safety processes. Specifically, we have improved our adherence to the use of Barcode Medication Administration (BCMA).”

What that means for Womack is that they are scanning patient’s bracelets and medications to ensure that the patient is getting the correct medication.

“Members of our BCMA team reviewed the data daily. Every time a scan failed, our team didn’t settle for a simple answer, but investigated why staff were unable to scan the medication. Womack now successfully scans over 99% of medication and patient bracelets during medication administration in the hospital, greatly reducing potential for errors,” said Wehner.

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is a letter grade program that rates a hospital’s patient safety measures through more than 30 performance measures. Each indicator reflects errors, accidents, injuries, and infections, as well as the systems hospitals have in place to prevent patient harm. This enables all hospitals, including military treatment facilities, to publicly report their progress in quality and safety.

Womack plans to continue to expand on their success. One of their newest projects is to ensure that they are documenting patients’ medications correctly. They ensure that any medications they add or change in the hospital are safe, and ensure patients go home knowing what they should be taking and how. Medication reconciliation, this is an important step in ensuring medication safety. This has been a challenge for the entire healthcare industry especially when patients take medications from multiple physicians and may not be taking them in a way that is written on the bottle.

Womack continues to fulfil its mission by providing safe, high quality, cost-effective care ensuring zero harm for patients, staff and visitors that generates readiness and positive outcomes.

For more on Womack’s hospital safety grade please visit. HospitalSafetyGrade.org or to learn more about Womack visit https://womack.tricare.mil/