Some hospitals, especially rural hospitals, struggle to fully implement eight safe practices that have been endorsed by the National Quality Forum, especially those pertaining to leadership training, according to a new report from The Leapfrog Group.
While 70 percent of urban hospitals fully met Leapfrog's safe practices standard — completing every activity within each of the individual eight safe practices — just 45 percent of rural hospitals can say the same.
Hospitals are better at implementing some best practices than others. Below are the eight best practices, endorsed by the NQF, along with the percent of hospitals with perfect compliance per practice in 2014:
- Provide effective leadership to prevent errors — 53 percent
- Offer training to improve safety — 82 percent
- Have staff work closely together to prevent errors — 72 percent
- Track and reduce risks to patients — 70 percent
- Ensure there are enough qualified nurses — 60 percent
- Communicate correct medication information — 66 percent
- Observe proper hand washing — 77 percent
- Take steps to prevent ventilator problems — 70 percent
See the full report for what activities each best practice involves.
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