Leapfrog releases spring safety scores: 5 things to know

The Leapfrog Group released its Spring 2015 Hospital Safety Scores Wednesday, which assign letter grades to more than 2,500 U.S. hospitals. In addition to new grades for participating hospitals, Leapfrog also released new updates to help patients track hospital safety consistency.

Below are five things to know about the Spring 2015 scores and the new Hospital Safety Score features.

1. For the first time ever, the Hospital Safety Score website allows patients to see a hospital's current score alongside its previous scores. That way, patients and potential patients can easily see if a hospital has maintained performance, improved or gotten worse. To further simplify the comparison process, Leapfrog has labeled the 182 hospitals that consistently received an A grade for safety with a "Straight A's" logo on the Leapfrog website.

2. In Spring 2015, 2,523 hospitals received a Hospital Safety Score. The grades breakdown is as follows:

  • A: 782
  • B: 719
  • C: 859
  • D: 143
  • F: 20

3. For the fourth time in a row, no hospitals in Washington, D.C., earned an A grade. North Dakota and Arkansas also had no A-grade hospitals this cycle.

4. Compared to the Fall 2014 scores, hospitals have made statistically significant improvements in pre- and post-surgery safety processes (like administering proper antibiotics before surgery and discontinuing use after surgery) and the implementation of computerized medication prescribing systems, which can help prevent medication errors.

5. Despite the strides made in those areas, hospitals have not significantly improved performance on safety outcomes, like preventing errors, accidents and infections, according to Leapfrog.

Find more information on how Hospital Safety Scores are calculated here.

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