Five Years After the Launch of the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, Patient Safety Improves, But Crucial Work Remains

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Apr 12, 2017, 08:46 ET

WASHINGTON, April 12, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Leapfrog Group today announced new grades for the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, the first and only national health care rating focused on errors, accidents and infections. The program has been assigning A, B, C, D and F letter grades to general acute-care hospitals in the U.S. since 2012. Over time there have been significant strides in improving patient safety, such as a 21 percent decline in hospital acquired conditions, increased adoption and improved functionality of computerized physician order entry systems, and millions of averted patient harms.

Nonetheless, problems with safety persist, with more than 1,000 people a day estimated to die from preventable errors, making this the third leading cause of death in America.

"When we launched the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade in 2012, our goal was to alert consumers to the hazards involved in a hospital stay and help them choose the safest option. We also hoped to galvanize hospitals to make safety the first priority day in and day out," said Leah Binder, president and CEO of Leapfrog. "So far, we've been pleased with the increase in public awareness and hospitals' commitment to solving this terrible problem. But we need to accelerate the pace of change, because too many people are still getting harmed or killed."

Findings include:

Sixty-three out of over 2,600 hospitals nationwide have achieved an "A" in every scoring update of the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade since its inception
Of the 2,639 hospitals rated, 823 earned an "A," 706 earned a "B," 933 earned a "C," 167 earned a "D" and 10 earned an "F"
The five states with the highest percentage of "A" hospitals this spring are Maine, Hawaii, Oregon, Wisconsin and Idaho
Maine has been ranked as one of the top five states in percentage of "A" graded hospitals since the Safety Grade began in 2012

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is calculated by top patient safety experts, peer reviewed, fully transparent and free to the public. For more information about the Safety Grade, please visit www.hospitalsafetygrade.org.

About The Leapfrog Group
Founded in 2000 by large employers and other purchasers, The Leapfrog Group is a national nonprofit organization driving a movement for giant leaps forward in the quality and safety of American health care.