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Frequently Asked Questions
Please consult our Frequently Asked Questions about the Safety Grade for more details about the Grades.
Straight "A" Hospitals
Straight “A” hospitals since 2012 share how their strong record of patient safety prepared them for the COVID-19 pandemic here.
Press Inquiries
We are happy to help members of the press inform the public about the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade. For interview requests or additional information for print, electronic and broadcast journalists, please contact:
Dalton Cox
(202) 591-4062
If you are a hospital looking for a template press release to announce your Safety Grade, please contact PR@leapfrog-group.org.
Press Releases
April 29, 2021
The Leapfrog Group releases latest Hospital Safety Grades of U.S. hospitals, with straight ‘A’ hospitals sharing insights on how they were prepared for COVID-19
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
Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades Highlight Safety Fundamentals Needed to Cope with the Pandemic
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
Leapfrog's Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic
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
November 7, 2019
20 Years After “To Err is Human”, Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades Prove Transparency Can Save Lives
The Leapfrog Group’s fall 2019 Hospital Safety Grades, announced today, highlight progress in bringing patient safety into the sunlight and demonstrate improvement from a problem first made prominent in a landmark report released 20 years ago.
The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is a bi-annual grading assigning “A,” “B,” “C,”
May 15, 2019
New Report Finds Risk of Death Nearly Doubles for Patients Using Hospitals Graded As “D” or “F”
WASHINGTON D.C. – Today, The Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit representing the nation’s largest and most influential employers and purchasers of health care, released the new spring 2019 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades. In conjunction, The Leapfrog Group contracted with the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality to
News
May 10, 2016
Once-failing hospitals say accountability, transparency key to surviving fallout from failing patient safety grades
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
How safe is your hospital? A look at California ratings
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
Consumers Will Choose Safer Hospitals 97% of the Time, Regardless of Cost
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
Can we make US medicine less dangerous?
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
To Make Hospitals Less Deadly, a Dose of Data
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
Leapfrog Releases Another Hospital Safety Report Card
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
A New, Evidence-based Estimate of Patient Harms Associated with Hospital Care
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.