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The two hospitals serving Evanston did well on safety assessments compiled by the Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit organization that advocates for safety and transparency in United States hospitals.
Endeavor Health Evanston Hospital and Ascension Saint Francis Hospital both scored A’s for their overall safety in Leapfrog’s spring 2024 analysis. And both hospitals did better than average in several metrics, such as surgery safety, how well the staff works to prevent errors and Intensive Care services. However, nurse staffing was rated worse than average in both hospitals.
This comes as Ascension Health is planning to outsource its hospitalist staff effective June 1. The Illinois Nurses Association labor union decried the move after the news broke at the end of March, claiming it could lead to higher workloads and less accountability.
Ascension Health didn’t respond to a request for comment by deadline. Endeavor Health suggested that the changes to the methodology behind that particular metric, which were approved earlier this year, may have affected the scoring.
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Evanston Hospital did better than average or within average on surgery-related issues and other safety problems, with the one notable exception of inadequate hand-washing. The hospital scored average for how well the staff communicates about medications patients need to take, and better than average when it came to communication about what they should keep an eye on and watch out for when patients are discharged. It scored high on staff responsiveness and communication with nurses, while getting an average score on communication with doctors.
Saint Francis did better than average in preventing infections during surgeries and other treatments, except for sepsis infection, where it did worse than average. The hospital did better than average or within average at other major surgery-related issues, as well as general safety issues, most notably doing better than average in responding to patient falls and injuries. But it was rated worse than average in preventing collapsed lungs.
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Communication between patients and health care workers is a major recurring issue. Saint Francis did worse than average on various metrics measuring patient feedback and staff responsiveness. On the other hand, it got high marks for preventing errors.
When it came to having enough staff to take care of patients, both hospitals got the score of 15 out of 100 – the lowest score any hospital received and well below the 74.69 average score.
Staff makes a difference, report says
“When hospitals have more nurses and assistive personnel, patients are more likely to have better experiences and improved health outcomes,” the report stated. “Without enough nurses, patients might face complications, longer hospital stays, and even death.”
Ascension is planning to outsource its hospitalist staff – a category that includes traveling nurses – to Atlanta-based SCP Health, a staffing firm majority-owned by the Onex Corporation investment fund. Existing staff were asked to re-apply for their positions with SCP. Endeavor Health spokesperson Spencer Walrath previously indicated that Evanston Hospital currently uses only five “traveling nurses” – nurses who work for staffing agencies rather than a hospital directly. He specified that “we do not outsource our hospitalists to any private equity-based firms.”
In a statement issued a few days after Crain’s Chicago Business broke the news of Ascension’s plans, the Illinois Nurses Association decried “increased workloads and decreased accountability as private equity firms take over more and more of the healthcare industry.”
In 2024, Leapfrog made a number of changes to how it measures and evaluates certain metrics, including nursing staffing levels. Walrath said that Leapfrog was working off the older data that was submitted under the previous scoring system.
“This change required new data submissions, and while we are diligently gathering the necessary information, it was not available in time for the spring evaluation period,” he said.
Walrath added that Endeavour is “extremely proud” of the rating Evanston Hospital got.
“These accolades highlight our continued dedication to providing exceptional, compassionate care to our patients,” he said. “We are confident that the upcoming Fall submission will accurately reflect the high standards of care our nursing staff provides.”
Branding history
Evanston Hospital was a founding hospital in what eventually became NorthShore University HealthSystem. NorthShore merged with the Edward-Elmhurst Health system in early 2022. The joint system was renamed NorthShore – Edward-Elmhurst Health, but last December it was rebranded as Endeavor. According to the Chicago Tribune, the system wanted a simpler name that would create a unified identity.
Saint Francis Hospital, 355 Ridge Ave., was founded in 1900. It has gone through several owners over the last few decades, most recently Presence Health, which Ascension acquired in 2018. At the time, Ascension operated its Chicago-area hospitals as a joint venture with AdventHealth under the AMITA Health brand, so Saint Francis was rebranded to Amita Health Saint Francis Hospital. When the joint venture dissolved April 1, 2022, it rebranded again, this time with the Ascension name.
Evanston hospitals score well on safety, but not staffing is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston's most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.