May 10, 2022
Data reveals additional details on COVID-19’s impact on patient safety
November 15, 2021
For the first time, hospitals graded on post-operative sepsis, kidney injury, and blood leakage
April 29, 2021
WASHINGTON, April 29, 2021—The Leapfrog Group, a national watchdog organization of employers and other purchasers focused on health care safety and quality, today released the spring 2021 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades, which assign an "A," "B," "C," "D," or "F" letter grade to more than 2,700 general acute-care hospitals in
December 14, 2020
WASHINGTON D.C. – The Leapfrog Group, a national watchdog organization of employers and other purchasers focused on health care safety and quality, today released the fall 2020 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades. Assigning “A,” “B,” “C,” “D,” and “F” letter grades to general acute-care hospitals in the U.S., the Safety March 31, 2020
On behalf of the Board of Directors, Regional Leaders, and staff of The Leapfrog Group, we express our gratitude for the dedication of America’s health care workforce. The pandemic threat reminds us all how much we depend on their courage and caring at our most vulnerable moments. Our respect for
May 10, 2016
When Leapfrog released their Spring 2016 patient safety grades recently, 15 hospitals got slapped with a very public 'F' grade casting a spotlight on them that no institution wants. But with more patients weighing public hospital grades, experts, as well as a few hospitals which have faced down bad grades, say denial is the last thing a poorly marked hospital should do.
January 17, 2015
Consumers might think twice about dining at a restaurant with a poor health grade posted in the window. And patient advocates say it shouldn't be any different when going to the hospital. A detailed look at performance data shows many California hospitals continue to struggle with medical errors and injuries to patients — despite industrywide efforts to remedy those problems.
December 4, 2014
According to a new study, when patients are shown Hospital Safety Score grades and cost information together, consumers will choose safer hospitals 97% of the time, regardless of cost. These results, from a study titled “The Effects of Hospital Safety Scores, Total Price, Out-of-Pocket Cost, and Household Income on Consumers’ Self-Reported Choice of Hospitals,” can be found in the latest issue of
The Journal of Patient Safety.
April 30, 2014
Modern medicine works indisputable wonders when it’s delivered carefully and appropriately. But it’s easy to forget how much harm it can cause when something goes awry. Medical errors kill an estimated 440,000 U.S. patients every year—well over 1,000 every day—and harm many times that number. The toll puts medicine itself in the same league as cancer and heart disease as a leading cause of death. Yet until recently, no one was even measuring the devastation, let alone working to reduce it.
December 4, 2013
Going to the hospital is supposed to be good for you. But in an alarming number of cases, it isn’t. And often it’s fatal. In fact it is the most dangerous thing most people will do. Available statistics on hospital safety don’t tell the public what they need to know to make informed decisions. Until very recently, health care experts believed that preventable hospital error caused some 98,000 deaths a year in the United States — a figure based on 1984 data. But a new report from the Journal of Patient Safety using updated data holds such error responsible for many more deaths — probably around some 440,000 per year.
October 23, 2013
The latest round of scores that measure rates of errors and infections, indicators of safe practices, shows an increase in the number of hospitals that earned the lowest score. Leapfrog's CEO Leah Binder calls that "a troubling trend." The Leapfrog Group released its fourth safety report card for general acute care hospitals Wednesday noting that overall, there's been "very little improvement" in how well providers are preventing patient harm.
September 1, 2013
The epidemic of patient harm in hospitals must be taken more seriously if it is to be curtailed. Fully engaging patients and their advocates during hospital care, systematically seeking the patients’ voice in identifying harms, transparent accountability for harm, and intentional correction of root causes of harm will be necessary to accomplish this goal.