Leapfrog Releases New Hospital Safety Grades, "D Level" Hospital Files Suit

At least a third of 2,600 surveyed general acute-care hospitals earned an "A" for safety efforts, according to a new report from The Leapfrog Group, 25 percent received a "B" grade and 34 percent a "C" grade. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is a bi-annual grading assigning "A," "B," "C," "D" and "F" letter grades to general acute-care hospitals that bases the grades entirely on patient safety -preventable errors, accidents, injuries and infections. The five states with the highest percentages of "A" hospitals are: Maine, Utah, Virginia, Oregon, and North Carolina, while Wyoming, Alaska and North Dakota hospitals did not receive any "A" grades. NCH Healthcare in Naples, Florida, filed a suit to challenge its "D" rating in an effort to keep the grade from being published alleging deceptive and unfair trade practices, as well as defamation, saying the health system did not participate in the 2019 survey and, thus, Leapfrog had to rely on secondary information. Click here to view the Hospital Safety Grades, and here for more on the lawsuit.

• According to an article published in Health Affairs, the Hospital Acquired Condition Reduction Program may not be associated with additional patient safety improvement, click here.