Aventura Hospital Safety Report

Updated March 2018

Aventura Hospital and Medical Center of Aventura, Florida, is part of Nashville-based Hospital Corporation of America, one of the first hospital companies in the nation.The general medical and surgical hospital was founded in 1965 and moved to its present location in 1974. It includes a 407-bed acute care facility and offers both outpatient and inpatient surgical, medical, cancer and diagnostic services. The hospital employs approximately 432 full-time registered nurses and holds accreditation from the Joint Commission on DNV Healthcare.

The hospital recently invested $130 million in expansion and renovation. A new North Patient Tower includes 243 rooms with their own bathrooms along with new patient care equipment, a Surgical Services Suite with 10 new operating rooms, a new Main Entrance, an Emergency Department that includes 28 beds, and two new intensive-care units.

As part of an initiative for hospitals that are part of HCA East Florida, Aventura Hospital and Medical Center has embarked on an effort to improve patient safety and reduce medical errors. Current areas of focus include prevention of blood clots in patients’ legs following surgery, improving response times for emergency care and improving staff training.

The hospital was designated a Level II Trauma Center on July 1, 2016. In 2017, Aventura Hospital and Medical Center recently broke ground on a $75.6 million expansion project to increase emergency room capacity and build a new patient tower and parking garage. The now expanded emergency room area doubles the hospital’s current emergency room footprint, with twenty-two new rooms, including fourteen general exam rooms, and two isolation rooms.

Leapfrog General Safety & Ranking – B

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety grade of Aventura Hospital is B, largely due to specific problems with high instances of C.diff infection, patient falls, open surgical wounds, all-around problems with communication between medical professionals and patients.

The Leapfrog Group rates Aventura Hospital and Medical Center’s avoidance in the following categories:

Infections: how well patients avoid hospital-acquired infections

• MRSA infection: above average
• C.diff infection: below average
• Blood infections from ICU stay: above average
• Urinary tract infections from ICU stay: above average
• Infections of the surgical site after colon surgery: above average

Problems with Surgery: how well patients avoid surgery-related complications

• Dangerous object left in patient’s body: above average
• Surgical wound splits open: below average
• Death from serious treatable complication: above average
• Collapsed lung: above average
• Serious breathing problem: above average
• Dangerous blood clot: above average
• Accidental cuts and tears:  above average

Practices to Prevent Errors: what the medical professionals and staff do to avoid errors

• Doctors order medications through a computer: above average
• Hand washing: above average
• Communication about medicines: below average
• Communication about discharge: below average
• Staff work together to prevent errors: above average

Safety Problems: how well the patients avoid harm from medical professional’s mistakes

• Dangerous bed sores: above average
• Patient falls: below average
• Air or gas bubble in the blood: above average
• Track and reduce risks to patients: above average

Doctors, Nurses, and Hospital Staff: the quality of the work of those in the hospital to ensure the best patient care

• Effective leadership: below average
• Enough qualified nurses: above average
• Specially trained doctors care for ICU patients: above average
• Communication with doctors: below average
• Communication with nurses: below average
• Responsiveness of hospital staff: below average

However, for almost all of the categories in which Aventura ranks below average, the score is only slightly or somewhat below the national average, and no score is at or near the worst in the country, except the following:

• Surgical wounds left open: the worse score was 3.69 patients out of every 1000; Aventura scored 3.12 out of every 1000.

U.S. News & World Report Ranking

U.S. News & World Report does not rank Aventura Hospital and Medical Center. However, the publication rates the hospital above average for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and heart failure, average for colon cancer surgery and hip replacement, and below average for aortic valve surgery, heart bypass surgery, knee replacement surgery, and lung cancer surgery.

Consumer Reports Ranking:

The hospital has also received a score of 51/100 for safety from Consumer Reports. The score is slightly above the average score (47) for the seventeen Miami area hospitals that received ratings.

Above Average Ratings – General

Avoiding Death – Medical

The rating measures the probability that a patient suffering from a stroke, heart failure, heart attack, pneumonia, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease will die within a month of hospital admission.

Avoiding bloodstream infections

The hospital reported 12 infections during the 12,707 patient days between April 1, 2016, and March 31, 2017. This was 12% better than the national average.

Avoiding MRSA infections:

The hospital reported 5 infections during the 112,021 patient days April 1, 2016, and March 31, 2017. This is 37% better than average.

Avoiding Death – Surgical

The rating measures the frequency of a patient undergoing surgery dying in the hospital following development of a serious but treatable complication.

Appropriate use of abdominal scanning

Only 2% of patients at Aventura Hospital and Medical Center received double abdominal scans.

Appropriate use of chest scanning

Less than 1% of patients received double chest scans.

Avoiding surgical site infections

The hospital reported four infections across 274 procedures between April 1, 2016, and March 31, 2017. This rate was 24% better than the national average.

Avoiding urinary tract infections associated with catheters

The hospital reported 11 infections over the 12,707 patient days between April 1, 2016, and March 31, 2017. The rate was 61% better than the national average.

Average Ratings — General

Average score for C.difficile infections: 61 reported C.difficile infections during the 112,021 patient days April 1, 2016, and March 31, 2017. The infection rate was 1% worse than the national average.

Areas That Are Not Yet Rated

Not yet rated in many key areas, including: maternity care, heart bypass surgery, aortic valve replacement.

Consumer Reports designates a number of metrics for Aventura Hospital and Medical Center as “not yet rated.” These include several areas of measurement under the category of “maternity care.” The hospital did not have sufficient data to receive a rating for “avoiding C-sections” or for “avoiding early elective deliveries.”

In addition, the hospital did not receive a rating for overall performance in heart bypass surgery, which includes survival of patients, absence of complications from surgery, recommended medications and optimal surgical technique.

The hospital also did not receive an overall rating for surgery to replace aortic valves, which includes patient survival and the absence of complications from the surgery.

Patient Experience

Above Average Ratings

Doctor-Patient Communication

95% of patients thought their doctor communicated well.

Average Ratings

Communication between nurses and patients

Nearly 89% patients reported that nurses usually or always communicated with them well.

Communication of information about medications

72% of patients reported that hospital staff members usually or always gave explanations regarding new medicines.

Control of pain

86% of patients reported that their pain levels were usually or always well controlled.

Quietness of rooms

88% percent of patients reported that the areas near their rooms were usually or always quiet during the night.

Cleanliness of rooms

85% of patients reported that their room and bathroom were usually or always clean.

Below-Average Ratings

Communication regarding discharge from the hospital

78% of patients reported that hospital staff advised them of occurrences to be alert for after they left the hospital.

Assistance from hospital staff members

82% of patients reported that staff members usually or always provided help in a timely manner.

Heart Bypass and Aortic Valve Surgery:

Heart bypass surgery goes as expected, with patients having a 98% chance of survival 30 days after surgery, a 91% percent chance of avoiding all five major complications, a 90% chance of receiving all four recommended medications, and a 100% chance of receiving an optimal surgical graft.

Aortic valve surgery goes as expected, with patients having a 98% chance of survival 30 days after surgery, and an 87% of avoiding all five major complications.

Areas that are not yet rated:

Maternity care is not yet rated.

Other Quality Indicators

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services: Below average for overall patient experience. The hospital also scored below average in avoiding re-admissions, with Medicare patients having a 15.3% chance of readmission to Baptist Health Hospital within 30 days.

In 2014, U.S. Health and Human Services records indicated that the hospital reported a data breach for the third time in just two years. The breach involved a theft of personal data that affected more than 82,000 people. The start date of the data breach was one day after a previous data breach that affected more than 2,500 people.

If you believe that inadequate care or negligence on the part of medical staff at Aventura Hospital and Medical Center have negatively affected you or a loved one, it’s important to speak to an experienced medical malpractice attorney. For more information about your legal options, please contact our office today.