Dive Brief:
- The Leapfrog Group has released its fourth six-month safety report card for general acute care hospitals today. The firm found that there's been very little improvement in scores since the last survey, which CEO Leah Binder calls "a troubling trend."
- Of 2,539 hospitals graded, 22 got the worst grade, an F, reserved for facilities with scores more than three standard deviations from the mean. That's up six from the last report card, in May 2013.
- Leapfrog definitely has its critics. Some hospitals complain that Leapfrog's data is outdated, some disagree with its measurement criteria, and some argue that scores don't take patient mix into account. Still others say that small rural hospitals shouldn't be judged by the same criteria as larger city hospitals.
- Despite their complaints, hospitals are actively trying to improve their scores, according to Binder.
Dive Insight:
It's hardly surprising that hospitals which get low grades on the Leapfrog report card complain that they've been misjudged. But even though its hospital critics may have baggage, this issue is too important to ignore any signs that the judgments it makes are flawed.
After all, 440,000 Americans are dying each year from preventable errors, according to new research from the Joural of Patient Safety. In other words, the stakes are extremely high.
Are there actual problems with with Leapfrog's methods or data? That's something payers, consumers and government policy analysts ought to investigate before taking the reports completely at face value.