For the first time, Leapfrog ranks metro areas
on patient safety performance
WASHINGTON, May 1, 2024
/PRNewswire/ -- The Leapfrog Group, an independent national
nonprofit driving a movement for patient safety, today released its
spring 2024 Hospital Safety Grades, assigning an "A," "B," "C," "D"
or "F" to nearly 3,000 general hospitals on how well they prevent
medical errors, accidents and infections. Nationally, patient
experience—a set of measures using patient-reported perspectives on
hospital care—indicates significant signs of improvement since the
fall 2023 Safety Grades, and preventable health care-associated
infections show a sustained drop after unprecedented rates during
the height of the pandemic.
For the first time, The Leapfrog Group
ranks metro areas on hospital patient safety performance.
In addition to assigning letter grades to individual hospitals,
The Leapfrog Group also reports best patient safety performance by
state and, for the first time, by metro area based on highest
percentage of "A" hospitals. In spring 2024, Utah ranks number one among states for the
second cycle in a row. The top three metro areas are Allentown (Pennsylvania), Winston-Salem (North
Carolina) and New Orleans
(Louisiana).
"Patient experience is very difficult to influence without
delivering better care, so these findings are encouraging," said
Leah Binder, president and CEO of
The Leapfrog Group. "We were also pleased to see the decrease in
preventable infections, which cause terrible suffering and
sometimes death. When we look at these positive trends, we see
lives saved—and that is gratifying."
Patient experience is measured through the Hospital Consumer
Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey,
which the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) uses to
publicly report patients' perspectives of hospital care.
Of the over 30 measures used to generate Hospital Safety Grades,
The Leapfrog Group reports on five patient experience measures that
have a direct impact on patient safety outcomes:
- Nurse communication
- Doctor communication
- Hospital staff responsiveness
- Communication about medicines
- Discharge information
Since the start of the pandemic, patient experience has
worsened. This spring has shown the first sign of improvement with
all measures significantly improving since fall 2023, but the
measures are still far from pre-pandemic levels.
Since Leapfrog reported Hospital Safety Grades in fall 2022,
when HAI rates were at their highest peak since 2016, 92% of
hospitals have improved performance on at least one of three
dangerous preventable infections. Average HAI scores have declined
dramatically:
- Central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI)
decreased by 34%
- Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) decreased
by 30%
- Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) decreased by
30%
"While today's results are promising, patient safety remains a
crisis-level hazard in health care. Some hospitals are much better
than others at protecting patients from harm, and that's why we
make the Hospital Safety Grade available to the public and why we
encourage all hospitals to focus more attention on safety," said
Binder. According to a summary of peer-reviewed research published
in BMJ, an estimated 250,000 people a year die of
preventable errors and infections in hospitals, which makes patient
safety problems the third leading cause of death in the U.S.
State and Metro Area Rankings
The top 10 states with the highest percentage of "A" hospitals
are Utah, Virginia, New
Jersey, Colorado,
Rhode Island, Alaska, Pennsylvania, North
Carolina, South Carolina
and Maine.
For metropolitan areas, Leapfrog used core-based statistical
areas (CBSAs) used by the U.S. Census and determined by the Office
of Management and Budget (OMB). The 25 metro areas with the highest
percentage of "A" hospitals are:
- Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton,
PA-NJ
- Winston-Salem, NC
- New Orleans-Metairie, LA
- Boise City, ID
- Chattanooga, TN-GA
- Provo-Orem, UT
- Charleston-North Charleston,
SC
- Raleigh-Cary, NC
- Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford,
FL
- Knoxville, TN
- San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa
Clara, CA
- Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport
News, VA-NC
- Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA
- Jacksonville, FL
- North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton,
FL
- Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL
- Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX
- San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA
- Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond
Beach, FL
- Denver-Aurora-Lakewood,
CO
- Grand Rapids-Kentwood, MI
- Hartford-East Hartford-Middletown, CT
- San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX
- Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia,
NC-SC
- Dayton-Kettering, OH
Leapfrog rankings were limited to areas with populations of
500,000 or greater with at least 6 graded hospitals. To view all
ranked metropolitan areas, view the interactive map.
About Leapfrog
Founded in 2000 by large employers and
other purchasers, The Leapfrog Group is an independent national
nonprofit organization driving a movement for giant leaps for
patient safety. Among its initiatives, the Leapfrog Hospital Safety
Grade was launched in 2012 and assigns letter grades to hospitals
based on their record of patient safety, helping consumers protect
themselves and their families from errors, injuries, accidents and
infections. It is the only hospital ratings program based
exclusively on hospital prevention of medical errors and harm to
patients. It is fully transparent and free to the public, and
grades are updated biannually in the fall and in the spring. To
look up your hospital's Safety Grade, please visit
HospitalSafetyGrade.org. For more from Leapfrog, follow us on
Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram and sign up for our
newsletter.
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SOURCE The Leapfrog Group