Hospital safety grades rank Marion County facilities
A national patient safety report again ranked AdventHealth Ocala as the top-scoring hospital in Marion County.
The facility at 1500 SW First Ave. maintained a grade of B from the nonprofit Leapfrog Group for the third straight report dating back to the fall 2019 rankings.
The group releases the rankings twice per year: One in the spring and again in the fall.
Meanwhile, West Marion Community Hospital and Ocala Regional Medical Center, both operated by Ocala Health, maintained a C grade. West Marion s report grade slipped from a B to C in the spring rankings.
The COVID-19 quarantines earlier this year hit those struggling with addiction in Marion County hard, according to a recently released study of overdose deaths in Florida.
Between March and June, 64 people died of drug overdoses in Marion, an increase of more than 100% over the same period in 2019, when 31 people died, according to the study released by the Orlando-based Project Opioid.
It was a similar case across Florida, where many counties saw sharp increases in overdose deaths during the quarantine period. Project Opioid used numbers from the Florida Department of Health for the study. We surveyed 1,700 Floridians, and it basically showed that during the mandated quarantines, 70% of those who were having mental health and substance abuse issues felt like they couldn t or shouldn t get help, said Andrae Bailey, founder of Project Opioid.