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Press Releases
May 1, 2024
New Hospital Safety Grades Find Significant Improvements in Patient Experience Reports and Health Care-Associated Infections
For the first time, Leapfrog ranks metro areas on patient safety performance
November 6, 2023
New Fall 2023 Hospital Safety Grades from The Leapfrog Group Find Improved Infection Rates Following Major Spike During COVID-19 Pandemic
Patient experience measures worsen for second year in a row
May 2, 2023
New Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade Reveals Significant Increase in Healthcare-Associated Infections and Worsening Patient Experience During COVID-19 Pandemic
CLABSI, MRSA and CAUTI rates spiked to a 5-year high
November 15, 2022
Leapfrog Group Releases New Hospital Safety Grades, Marking 10th Anniversary
Significant improvements in patient safety shown over past decade
May 10, 2022
New Hospital Safety Grades from The Leapfrog Group Highlight Pandemic-Era Declines in Patient Experience
Data reveals additional details on COVID-19’s impact on patient safety
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.