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DOH ranks LMH as a “high performer” by three measures. For overall deaths, the facility logged a ratio of 0.85; compared to statewide value of 1.13. Its heart failure mortality rate was four out of 265 patients, which translates to a ratio of 15.09; less than half of the statewide value of 33.95. And for “postoperative hemorrhage or hematoma,” LMH notched a ratio of 0.00, which compares very favorably to the statewide average of 2.55. (For all three metrics, lower numerical scores denote better performance.)
In 21 other categories—including pneumonia mortality, acute stroke mortality, and complications (which gauges “common patient safety problems in the hospital”), DOH ranked LMH as an “average performer. For 38 other criteria (including deaths from cardiac surgery, deaths from stroke, and the number of patients who left the emergency room without being seen, DOH declined to measure or rank LMH, chiefly because there were too few instances of these occurrences to infer a statistically meaningful benchmark. In no category did DOH confer upon LMH its lowest ranking, “poor performer.”
In calendar years 2020, 2021, and 2022, DOH regulators inspected LMH 27 times. All but two of these visits resulted in no citations. One inspection, in January 2022, led to the issuance of three citations: one focused on “facilities, supplies, equipment maintenance,” another for LMH’s infection control program, and a third for quality improvement activities.” A separate inspection (in May 2021) resulted in a fourth citation, arising from regulations related to “patient rights: care in safe setting.” The DOH database notes that between August 2020 and July 2023, “there have been no enforcement actions against the operator of this facility.”
A spokesman for LMH did not respond to a request for comment.
Matthew Fenton
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