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Illinois Hospitals Receive New Patient Safety Grades from The Leapfrog Group - 39% of graded hospitals in state received an A

By MBGH Information posted 11-08-2018 09:16 AM

  

CHICAGO – Nov. 8, 2018 – The Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit aiming to improve health care quality for consumers, employers and purchasers, announced the fall 2018 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades. The independent grading system assigns A, B, C, D and F letter grades to general acute-care hospitals in the US based on their ability to protect patients from avoidable errors, injuries, accidents and infections.

 

Illinois moved up in the national rankings to the 12th spot (up from 15th in spring 2018) and 39% of graded hospitals for Illinois received an A, while 27% earned B’s and C’s respectively. Five hospitals received scores of D and below: Holy Cross Hospital, Loretto Hospital, Mt. Sinai Hospital and South Shore Hospital in Chicago, and UnityPoint Health – Proctor in Peoria, IL.

 

The Midwest Business Group on Health (MBGH), the Leapfrog Group’s Illinois Regional Leader, and a non-profit organization representing employer purchasers of health care, annually encourages Illinois hospitals to participate in Leapfrog’s online patient safety survey.

 

“The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades offer critical information for Illinois employers, purchasers and patients,” said Cheryl Larson, MBGH president and CEO. “We are committed to working together to make our community the safest one in America and look forward to seeing further improvements in patient safety, especially for those hospitals working to improve their grades.”

 

In the wake of the high stakes midterm election, neither party can claim victory in addressing preventable errors and infection in hospitals. The fall 2018 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades show that 33 percent of hospitals in traditionally blue states and 32 percent of hospitals in traditionally red states earned A’s. As recently as September 2018, The Leapfrog Group testified at a hearing of the United States’ Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pension (HELP) Committee, offering guidance for a bipartisan approach to improving transparency of patient safety data and making progress on safety.

 

“The Hospital Safety Grades give the American public information they need and deserve about the safety of their hospitals. Avoidable medical errors and infections in hospitals are still the third leading cause of death in the nation, and that’s not a partisan issue,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “We commend MBGH and its members for making this a priority.”

 

Developed under the guidance of a National Expert Panel, the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses 28 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign the grades to more than 2,600 US hospitals twice per year. The Hospital Safety Grade’s methodology is peer-reviewed and fully transparent, and the results are free to the public.

 

Because publicly available data is limited for a variety of reasons, The Leapfrog Group is not able to calculate a safety grade for every hospital in Illinois or for critical access hospitals, long-term care and rehabilitation facilities, mental health facilities, federal hospitals (e.g., Veterans Affairs, Indian Health Services, etc.) or specialty hospitals, including surgical centers and cancer hospitals or free-standing pediatric hospitals. 


 

For more information about the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, as well as individual grades and state rankings please visit www.hospitalsafetygrade.org and follow The Leapfrog Group on Facebook and Twitter.

 
About The Leapfrog Group

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Founded in 2000 by large employers and other purchasers, The Leapfrog Group is a national nonprofit organization driving a movement for giant leaps forward in the quality and safety of American health care. The flagship Leapfrog Hospital Survey collects and transparently reports hospital performance, empowering purchasers to find the highest-value care and giving consumers the lifesaving information they need to make informed decisions. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, Leapfrog's other main initiative, assigns letter grades to hospitals based on their record of patient safety, helping consumers protect themselves and their families from errors, injuries, accidents, and infections. www.leapfroggroup.org

 

About the Midwest Business Group on Health

mbgh.jpgMBGH is one of the nation’s leading non-profit employer coalitions of 125 mid, large and jumbo self-funded public and private employers, representing over 4 million lives and annually spending over $4.5 billion on health care. Members consist of leading health benefit professionals, with activities focused on education, research, benchmarking and community-based initiatives that increase the value of health benefits and health care services. MBGH is a founding member of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn. www.mbgh.org



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