North Shore Medical Center Review

Updated May 2021

North Shore Medical Center is a full-service acute care medical center. It serves more than 80,000 patients per year and is owned by Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare.

North Shore provides a range of medical services and specialties, including 24-hour emergency care, a cancer center equipped with Edge radiosurgery technology, robotic surgery, Level III neonatal intensive care and high-risk maternity care. It has a comprehensive stroke center as well, which treats patients suffering from severe ischemic strokes.

U.S. News

Overview Of North Shore Medical Center

North Shore Medical Center in Miami, Florida, is rated high performing in two procedures and conditions. It is a teaching hospital.

Rankings And Ratings Of North Shore Medical Center

Cancer
- National rank: Not ranked
- Overall score: Not available
- Conditions/procedures applicable to cancer:
  - Lung cancer surgery: Not rated
  - Colon cancer surgery: 3/5 (average score)
Cardiology And Heart Surgery
- National rank: Not ranked
- Overall score: Not available
- Conditions/procedures applicable to cardiology and heart surgery:
  - Heart failure: 5/5 (high performing)
  - Heart bypass surgery: 2/5 (below average)
  - Abdominal, aortic, aneurysm repair: 2/5 (below average)
  - Aortic valve surgery: 2/5 (below average)
Orthopedics
- National rank: Not ranked
- Overall score: 18.5/100
- Conditions/procedures applicable to orthopedics:
  - Hip replacement: 3/5 (average)
  - Knee replacement: 3/5 (average)
Pulmonology
- National rank: Not ranked
- Overall score: 17.7/100
- Conditions/procedures applicable to pulmonology:
  - Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: 5/5 (high performing)

Patient Experience At North Shore Medical Center

Scores are based on surveys taken from North Shore Medical Center’s inpatients inquiring about the different aspects of their stays after they were discharged:

Satisfaction with the hospital overall: 2/5
Willingness to recommend: 2/5
Satisfaction with doctors’ communications: 1/5
Satisfaction with nurses’ communications: 2/5
Satisfaction with efforts to prevent medication harm: 2/5
Satisfaction with quality of discharge information: 1/5
Satisfaction with involvement in recovery: 1/5
Satisfaction with staff responsiveness: 1/5
Satisfaction with hospital room cleanliness: 2/5
Satisfaction with noise volume: 2/5

The hospital fared below average on patient surveys. It scored 2 out of 5.

North Shore Medical Center used to be one of the best hospitals in the country. The hospital’s ratings are below average. In recent times, it has not been able to earn a national ranking.

Leapfrog General Safety Rating

The latest Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade of North Shore Medical Center is A for fall of 2020.

The Leapfrog Group rates North Shore Medical Center in the categories below.

Infections

MRSA Infection: Staph bacteria are common in hospitals, but MRSA is a type of staph that cannot be killed by many antibiotics. It is found in bed linens and medical equipment and can be spread if health care providers do not properly wash their hands between patients.
- North Shore Medical Center score: 0.531
- Best hospital score: 0.000
- Average hospital score: 0.791
- Worst hospital score: 2.863
North Shore Medical Center performed better than average in this category.
C. diff infection: C. diff is a bacterium that causes diarrhea, loss of appetite, fever and abdominal pain. C. diff occurs in patients who are taking antibiotics or have recently taken them. Like MRSA, C. diff is spread through contaminated equipment or health care providers not washing hands properly between patients.
- North Shore Medical Center score: 0.319
- Best hospital score: 0.000
- Average hospital score: 0.583
- Worst hospital score: 1.737
North Shore Medical Center performed better than average in this category.

Problems With Surgery

Dangerous objects left in patients’ bodies: This problem does not occur often, but when it does, it can be extremely dangerous. Most of the time, the object left in a patient’s body is a surgical sponge.
- North Shore Medical Center score: 0.000
- Best hospital score: 0.000
- Average hospital score: 0.017
- Worst hospital score: 0.354
North Shore Medical Center did not report any cases of dangerous objects being left behind in patients’ bodies.
Surgical wounds split open: A surgical wound splitting open is very painful and places a patient at risk of infection.
- North Shore Medical Center score: 0.85
- Best hospital score: 0.67
- Average hospital score: 0.91
- Worst hospital score: 1.20
North Shore Medical Center performed better than average.

Practices To Prevent Errors

Doctor’s-order medication through a computer: Hospitals use computerized physicians order entry (CPOE) systems to order medications for patients in the hospital instead of writing prescriptions by hand. CPOE systems help reduce medication errors in hospitals.
- North Shore Medical Center score: 100
- Best hospital score: 100
- Average hospital score: 83.56
- Worst hospital score: 5
North Shore Medical Center performed best in the category with no errors reported.
Safe medication administration: Using bar codes on medications, nurses scan the medications and then the patient’s wrist bracelet to make sure that the patient is receiving the right medications. Bar code medication administration (BCMA) reduces the risk of a nurse accidentally giving the wrong medication to a patient.
- North Shore Medical Center score: 100
- Best hospital score: 100
- Average hospital score: 83.44
- Worst hospital score: 5
North Shore Medical Center performed best in this category.

Safety Problems

Dangerous bed sores: Bed sores are wounds on the skin that form when a patient lays or sits in one position for too long without being moved. They can cause severe pain and serious infections.
- North Shore Medical Center score: 0.86
- Best hospital score: 0.03
- Average hospital score: 0.58
- Worst hospital score: 2.78
North Shore Medical Center performed worse than average in this category.
Patient falls and injuries: Falls can occur when patients who really can’t walk try to get out of bed. Falls can result in longer spells in the hospital and can also result in permanent disability.
- North Shore Medical Center score: 0.862
- Best hospital score: 0.000
- Average hospital score: 0.432
- Worst hospital score: 1.716
North Shore Medical Center performed worse than average in this category.

Doctors, Nurses And Hospital Staff

Effective leadership to prevent errors: Errors become much more common when hospital leaders do not make patient safety a priority. Leaders must make sure money is properly allotted toward enhancing safety measures.
- North Shore Medical Center score: 120
- Best hospital score: 120
- Average hospital score: 117.31
- Worst hospital score: 9.23
North Shore Medical Center performed best in this category.
Enough qualified nurses: Patients receive most of their care from nurses, not doctors. If there is a shortage of qualified nurses, then patients might face more complications and longer stays in the hospital.
- North Shore Medical Center score: 100
- Best hospital score: 100
- Average hospital score: 98.37
- Worst hospital score: 17.65
North Shore performed best in this category.

Leapfrog has given better-than-average ratings to North Shore Medical Center. For a reputable hospital like North Shore, the low ratings it received for bed sores and hospital falls and injuries are big dents in the hospital’s image.

Healthgrades

Healthgrades has chosen North Shore Medical Center for numerous awards in the past. This year, the only recognition it received was:

America’s 100 Best Hospitals for Prostate Surgery (2021, 2020)

Safety Ratings

One rating was better than expected:

Accidental cut, puncture, perforation or hemorrhage during medical care

One rating was worse than expected:

Breakdown of abdominal incision site

Ten ratings were as expected.

No cases relating to foreign objects left in the body during a surgery or procedure were reported at the hospital.

Patient Experience

Patient Ratings
- 62% of patients gave a rating of 9 or 10 (5% lower than national average).
- 62% said that they would definitely recommend it (8% lower than the national average).
Care Team Ratings
- Communication With Doctors
  78% of patients said that doctors always listened to them and explained things well (3% lower than the national average of 81%).
- Communication With Nurses
  74% of patients said that nurses always listened to them and explained things well (4% lower than the national average of 78%).
- Communication About Medicines
  63% of patients said that staff members always explained medicines before they were given to them (same as the national average)
- Discharge Information
  79% of patients were given information about recovering at home (5% lower than the national average of 84%).
- Care Transition
  46% of the patients said that they understood their care needs when they left the hospital (7% lower than the national average of 53%).
- Responsiveness Of Hospital
  62% of patients said that they always received help quickly from hospital staff (4% lower than the national average of 66%).
Facility Report
- Quietness
  57% of patients said that their rooms and the areas around them were always quiet at night (3% lower than national average of 60%).
- Cleanliness
  72% of patients said that their rooms and bathrooms were always kept clean (1% lower than the national average of 73%).

North Shore Medical Center has not received good ratings from Healthgrades, and its patients gave the hospital a below-average rating, too, in Healthgrades surveys.

Reach Out To Us To Learn More

If you believe that inadequate care or negligence on the part of the medical staff at North Shore Medical Center has negatively affected you or your loved one, then it is important to speak to an experienced medical malpractice lawyer. For more information on your legal options, contact Kaire & Heffernan, at (305) 876-6001 or reach out online today.