Five acute care hospitals that received an "A" safety grade rating from The Leapfrog Group received "F" ratings in past years, the organization announced April 24.
The Leapfrog Group announced the spring 2018 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades updates April 24. The organization found hospitals have made notable progress in reducing avoidable deaths from errors and infections. The list is updated every six months — once in the spring and again in the fall.
"The national numbers on death and harm in hospitals have alarmed us for decades. What we see in the new round of Safety Grades are signs of many hospitals making significant improvements in their patient safety record," said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. "Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades have definitely spurred these improvement efforts. But the hospitals achieving new milestones are doing the hard work, and we salute them as well as the leaders, researchers and organizations fighting every year for patient safety."
Here are three insights analysts made after reanalyzing hospitals' safety ratings.
1. Five hospitals that received an "A" grade this spring for the first time held "F" ratings in past years.
2. Forty-six hospitals achieved an "A" rating for the first time since the organization began ranking hospitals six years ago.
3. Eighty-nine hospitals that received an "A" rating this spring held "D" or "F" ratings in the past.
To learn more about The Leapfrog Group's spring 2018 update, click here. To view the organization's 2017 ratings, click here.