Study: Improvement in Errors, Accidents, Infections

The Leapfrog Group this week released its spring 2018 Hospital Safety Grades, which found that hospitals have stepped up their game when it comes to reducing avoidable deaths from errors and infections. Leapfrog issues the report cards twice a year, grading hospitals on an “A through F” scale based on their patient safety efforts.

“The national numbers on death and harm in hospitals have alarmed us for decades. What we see in the new round of Safety Grades are signs of many hospitals making significant improvements in their patient safety record,” said Leah Binder, Leapfrog’s president and CEO, in a release. “Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades have definitely spurred these improvement efforts. But the hospitals achieving new milestones are doing the hard work, and we salute them as the leaders, researchers and organizations fighting every year for patient safety.”

Leapfrog listed improvements including:

• Five hospitals achieving “A” grades for the first time once had received “F”s
• Since the report cards started six years ago, 46 hospitals have received an A for the first time
• 89 hospitals receiving an A had at one point received a D or F
• Strong performance from hospitals in states that once were ranked poorly, including Rhode Island, Hawaii, Wisconsin, and Idaho

Of the approximately 2,500 hospitals graded by Leapfrog, 30% earned an A, 28% received a B, 35% were given a C, 6% got a D, and 1% received an F. The states with the highest percentage of A-graded hospitals are Hawaii, Idaho, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Virginia. Hospitals with F grades are located in California, Washington, DC., Florida, Iowa, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, and New York.

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades are calculated by top patient safety experts, peer-reviewed, transparent, and free to the public. The report card is released each spring and fall.

Story first published in PSQH