Guthrie Cortland Medical Center Earns Top Marks with “A” Hospital Safety Grade

Matt Brooks: Matt Brooks here on X101 Always Classic for another edition of Your Care with Guthrie. And with me in the studio today is Jennifer Yartym, President of Guthrie Cortland Medical Center. Now, Leapfrog Group has recently awarded Guthrie Cortland Medical Center an “A” Hospital Safety Grade, recognizing the hospital’s performance in protecting patients from preventable harm and medical errors. Jennifer, thank you for joining us this morning.

Jennifer Yartym: Thanks for having me! I’m excited to be here to share such fabulous news.

Matt Brooks: Fabulous indeed. Now, first off, Jennifer, can you tell me what is Leapfrog and why was Guthrie Cortland Medical Center recently recognized by the Leapfrog Group?

Jennifer Yartym: Leapfrog is a leading patient advocacy organization with distinct highlights and dedication of the Cortland team’s collective commitment to quality, safe patient care. So, I am thrilled to be here today to share Leapfrog grades hospitals across the nation with a score from an A to F—similar to when you were in high school, right? And we’re really proud to acknowledge that we’ve achieved the highest level of care possible, which really speaks to the level of commitment of Guthrie and our caregivers to provide that high-quality, patient-centered care.

Matt Brooks: It’s no small feat to get that “A.” But what does that mean specifically for patients seeking care at Guthrie Cortland Medical?

Jennifer Yartym: Right, great question, because Leapfrog ratings are a resource for our patients and our community to help find care. So, if somebody was going to go seek surgery or have a procedure, you want to know that the organization and the hospital that you’re seeking that care puts patient safety and high-quality care first and foremost. So, as a hospital, we work towards preventing infections and encouraging handwashing, which is the primary way that any community member and healthcare giver can prevent the spread of infection. And whether it’s a hospital, it’s saying that our hospital values patient safety and has a strong commitment and protocols and standards in place that encourage and that also prevent errors and that next potential error from happening.

Matt Brooks: Obviously, when they’re grading, it’s not just “they got one thing on the rubric, they got an A.” There’s got to be multiple things that Leapfrog was looking at when establishing their grade. Can you tell us some of the key areas that Guthrie Cortland Medical Center had excelled in to keep patients safe, leading to this great rating?

Jennifer Yartym: Absolutely. And there’s actually hundreds of metrics that Leapfrog looks at from publicly reported information. But I would say the areas that we focused on throughout the years in driving the culture of transparency is hospital-acquired infections are first and foremost at the forefront in reducing or eliminating—and we like to say they should be “never events” where they don’t occur. Our patients come to us when they don’t feel well, they’re sick; we don’t want to make them sicker.

So, really focusing on those hospital—elimination of hospital-acquired infections such as C. diff or urinary tract infection or bloodstream infection. Or if you come to give birth at our hospital, you don’t want to get an infection, or for surgery. Prevention of those infections. Also focusing on safe medication administration. And so, advocating and encouraging living in a culture of escalation and identifying and self-reporting. We have great “Catch Awards” to encourage individuals to continue to report what that next potential patient harm may be, which helps us proactively identify before it ever reaches the patient so that we ensure that we are providing the highest quality safe patient care.

Matt Brooks: Now, if someone is in need of care for themselves or their family, and they would like to learn more about the services at Guthrie Cortland Medical Center, where should they go? Where should they start?

Jennifer Yartym: We absolutely want them to start on our website at www.guthrie.org. We have all of the information from specialists to clinical care to visitor information on how to access our services. It will guide based on what they’re looking for specifically to those areas, as well as phone numbers that can also reach out for further information.

Matt Brooks: Thank you, Jennifer, for joining me today talking about this great achievement. “A”—I mean, the best grade you can get!

Jennifer Yartym: It absolutely is. And as I—I’d like an “A+,” but an “A” is fabulous. An “A+” doesn’t exist. We are—that is zero harm, right? And that’s what we always are striving to achieve. But thank you. I am so proud of the team and the caregivers and the quality care that we provide each and every day for our community.

Matt Brooks: Yeah, and I’m looking forward to just seeing what’s on the horizon and where local care is in the rest of 2026 and beyond. So, again, thank you Jennifer for joining me today. This is Matt Brooks on X101 Always Classic.