On April 1, The Leapfrog Group opened its 2025 hospital survey — with seven key changes since last year’s edition.
Each year, the organization evaluates feedback, literature and pilot testing before finalizing changes. Here are the key updates for 2025:
1. Cybersecurity and natural events: Hospitals will now report these incidents directly to the Leapfrog Help Desk instead of through the survey. If minimum reporting is met, Leapfrog will assign a safety grade with a footnote: “Results are based on limited data due to a reported cybersecurity event or natural disaster.”
2. Bar code medication administration: The survey now clarifies single- and mixed-acuity units when asking hospitals about bar code medication administration utilization. It also updates language around “back-up equipment,” such as scanners, for BCMA hardware failures.
3. Hospital and surgeon volume: Mitral valve repair/replacement scores will only be accepted if publicly reported on The Society of Thoracic Surgeons’ website. For bariatric surgery, outdated procedure codes were removed and new ICD-10-CM codes added to align with CMS payment policies.
4. Maternity care process quality measures: Leapfrog clarified the timing of DVT prophylaxis for cesarean deliveries. In 2026, the organization plans to remove the inclusion of patients receiving heparin or heparinoid, unless they also received a pneumatic compression device prior to surgery.
5. Pediatric intensive care unit physician staffing: The survey now scores adult and pediatric ICU staffing separately. The overall scoring method is unchanged.
6. Hospital boarding in the emergency department: Leapfrog plans to grow its reporting to include ED safety. While not scored in 2025, hospitals will be asked to report median emergency department length of stay, 90th percentile ED length of stay for admitted patients, and the percentage with boarding times over four hours.
7. Procedure volume: Five eye procedure codes and four breast surgery codes were reinstated after being removed in 2024, “due to feedback that the procedures continue to be performed in both ambulatory surgery centers and hospital outpatient departments,” the organization said.
Learn the changes to Leapfrog’s 2024 survey here.
