Dive Brief:
- Leapfrog's fall 2016 Hospital Safety Grade program, which looked at patient safety at 2,633 U.S. hospitals, gave 844 an "A," 658 a "B," 954 a "C," 157 a "D," and 20 an "F."
- It highlighted several states that raised their percentage of hospitals earning an "A" from the past, noting North Carolina climbed from 19th in the U.S. in spring 2013 to fifth in fall 2016, while Idaho climbed from 45th in spring 2013 to second in fall 2016.
- Hawaii made the top spot for the first time, while those at the bottom with no "A" hospitals are Alaska, Delaware, and North Dakota, as well as Washington, D.C.
Dive Insight:
Patient injuries, accidents, infections and medical errors kill more than 200,000 Americans annually, which makes hospital safety errors the third leading cause of death in the U.S., according to Leapfrog. That makes hospital safety grades paramount in the pushes toward transparency and improved patient outcomes.
"In the fast-changing healthcare landscape, patients should be aware that hospitals are not all equally competent at protecting them from injuries and infections," stated Leapfrog President and CEO Leah Binder.
The grades, which are released bi-annually, are based on 30 measures of safety and use a scoring methodology updated this spring to include data on MRSA Bacteremia and C.difficile, as well as patient survey results regarding communication about medicines, discharge, nurses, doctors and staff responsiveness.
The grades overall look similar to last year's hospital grades released in fall 2015 in that the most common grade was C, followed by A, then B, then D, then F.
Other improvements in the new report include Utah, now ranked sixth, and Vermont, now ranked number eight. Last year, Vermont was among the states that had zero hospitals that with an A grade.