Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - After being named in the top five percent of hospitals in the U.S., Missoula’s Providence St. Patrick Hospital has received another honor, this one from an organization called Leapfrog.

KGVO News spoke with Chief Executive of Providence Montana Joyce Dombrouski, who described the Leapfrog Organization.

“Leapfrog is a private sort of organization that has been in existence for I honestly I don't really know how many years, but their whole goal was to actually rate hospitals on the quality and safety of the care that hospitals are providing,” said Dombrouski. “They grade the hospital and then communicate that out to the public so that the public has a report card to look at when they were making a choice of which hospital perhaps to get services.”

Dombrouski provided details of how hospitals were evaluated.

“They compare us across like-sized hospitals, and like complexity hospitals in the country,” she said. “Then about every four months or so which we call reporting periods. They come out with a grade and so we received an ‘A’ grade for the 13th consecutive reporting period.”

Dombrouski praised her staff for the consistency of the quality of care provided which led to the award from Leapfrog.

“What is critical for me to communicate is the consistency in which we have earned those A's,” she said. “We didn’t get an ‘A” one time and then a ‘B’ and then an ‘A’. I mean, it's a consistent, high level of patient safety and quality that we're great at. And we do know it gets harder to earn those ‘A’s’, as everybody else ramps up and wants to earn the A, which is exactly why Leapfrog came into existence. They want to raise the whole standard of health care, and I honestly think they've done that.”

Again, Dombrouski gave all the credit to the hospital staff, from the doctors and nurses to the entire workforce.

“That award is such a testament to the leadership here and to the caregivers who come in 24/7,” she said. “Yes, they were here on Thanksgiving taking care of patients on a day that many people were at home with their families, along with our medical staff who are completely committed to the patients and to this organization as well. It's an outstanding grade and it reflects so much of really the heart and soul of the people who come in every day and to take care of patients wherever they enter.”

Click here to read about the Leapfrog Organization.

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