Kendall Regional Medical Center Safety Report

Kendall Regional Medical Center is a for-profit general medical and surgical hospital in the Miami area, which is owned by HCA, one of the nation’s largest for-profit hospital chains. Kendall Regional offers multiple adult specialty departments, including cancer, diabetes & endocrinology, gastroenterology & GI surgery, nephrology, neurology & neurosurgery, orthopedics, pulmonology, and urology. The 300-bed facility has services for burn care, pediatrics, maternity, and emergency care, along with several others.

There is no recent information for the number of patients admitted and surgeries performed.

General Safety Score – 40/100

The Kendall Regional Medical Center received a score of 40/100 for safety from ConsumerReports.com. The score falls slightly below the average for national hospital scores (44.5), and below the average score (46.1) for the seven Miami area hospitals that received ratings.*

This score is based upon the hospital’s ability to:

• avoid infection
• avoid readmission
• communicate about medication and discharge
• appropriately use chest and abdominal scanning and
• avoid mortality.

Above Average Ratings

Kendall Regional earned high scores for “avoiding death – medical.” This category is based on the probability that a heart attack, heart failure or pneumonia patient will die within 30 days of being admitted to the hospital.

The hospital also ranked above average for “avoiding death – surgical.” This category rates how often patients undergoing surgery died in the hospital after developing a serious, treatable complication. Such complications may include pneumonia, deep vein thrombosis/pulmonary embolism, sepsis, shock/cardiac arrest or gastrointestinal hemorrhage/acute ulcer. Conditions such as these should be identified quickly and treated.

In addition, Kendall Regional scored well for making appropriate use of chest abdominal scans on patients. This means that it had a low percentage of “double scans.” Double scans occur when patients receive two kinds of imaging tests consecutively: one without dye and the other with dye. This needlessly increases a patient’s exposure to radiation.

Below Average Ratings

Infections

The hospital scored poorly in avoiding infections. According to Consumer Reports, Kendall Regional reported 21 bloodstream infections among ICU patients with central lines between 4/1/2012 and 3/31/2013. This score is 41% worse than national rates.

The hospital also received low scores for failing to avoid catheter-associated urinary tract infections. It reported 39 catheter-associated infections among ICU patients between 4/1/2012 and 03/31/2013. This score is 319% worse than national rates.

On the other hand, Kendal Regional scores high when it comes to surgical site infections. The hospital only reported 1 such infection in 228 surgical procedures between 4/1/2012 and 03/31/2013. This is 82% better than the national rates.

Avoiding Adverse Events

Kendall Regional scored poorly with respect to “avoiding adverse events.” Adverse events are defined by Consumer Reports as a measure based on mortality or a longer than- expected hospital stays. The rates are compared with predicted averages based on the kinds of patients the hospital cares for and the types of surgeries it performs.

In this category, the hospital had 92% more adverse events than predicted based on nearly 100 surgical procedures. In particular, it had 156% more adverse events with respect to knee replacement surgeries than predicted.

Patient Satisfaction

Consumer Reports found that Kendall Regional earned an average rating for patient satisfaction. Of the patients surveyed:

• 93% said the doctors always or usually communicated well.
• 91% said patients reported that the the nurse always or usually communicated well.
• 91% said their pain was controlled or managed well.
• 88% said their room and bathrooms were always or usually clean
• 86% said that the staff always or usually provided help quickly.

However, the hospital received below average ratings for communication upon being discharged from the hospital or being introduced to new drugs. In particular:

• 78% of patients said they received information about what symptoms and signs to watch for after leaving the hospital.
• 74% of patients said the doctors or nurses always or usually explained new medication.

This is consistent with the latest Medicare Penalties based on Readmissions. Kendall Regional, led all Miami-Dade hospitals in penalty increases for 2015.

In Broward, Northwest Medical Center in Margate — also an HCA hospital — led all hospitals in readmissions penalties.

Given the increased penalty, hospital administrators have established new practices that have helped reduce readmissions to the expected rate. The new efforts include establishing a team of nurses to focus on high risk patients and daily meetings of care-coordination teams. Only time will tell whether the follow thru is truly there or if this is simply lip service.

The U.S. News & World Report found that 62% of patients would recommend the Kendall Regional to family and friends. This percentage is both below the state average for hospital recommendations (68%) and the national average (71%). Twelve percent of patients surveyed said they would probably or definitely not recommend the hospital to others. This percentage is higher than both the state average (8%) and the national average (5%).

If you believe you or a loved one were injured or neglected by a doctor, nurse, or physician at Kendall Regional Medical Center contact our offices today to speak with an attorney about your legal rights. You could have a case to receive compensation for your injuries.

* Not all 68 Miami area hospitals were rated by Consumer Reports