The Leapfrog Group released its fall 2016 Hospital Safety Grades Monday, assigning A through F letter grades to 2,633 hospitals in the U.S. Here are five things to know about this season's update.
1. Leapfrog changed the name of its grading system from the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Score to Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade. Even though the name has changed, the program remains the same.
2. Leapfrog releases safety grade updates twice per year, and this fall's grades are based on the same methodology used in the spring. The grade reflects hospitals' performance on a number of key metrics that fall into two categories: process/structural measures, such as computerized physician order entry, nurse communication and hand hygiene; and outcomes measures, such as falls, surgical site infections, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Clostridium difficile, among others.
3. Data is pulled from the Leapfrog Hospital Survey and CMS' Hospital Compare website.
4. The breakdown of fall grades earned by the 2,633 hospitals is as follows:
- 844 earned an A (up from 798 in the spring)
- 658 earned a B (up from 639 in the spring)
- 954 earned a C (down from 957 in the spring)
- 157 earned a D (down from 162 in the spring)
- 20 earned an F (up from 15 in the spring)
5. Some states had better-performing hospitals than others. For instance, 66.7 percent of Hawaii's hospitals earned an A grade (eight of 12 graded hospitals), while no hospitals in Alaska, Delaware, North Dakota and Washington, D.C., earned an A grade.
Click here for more information on Leapfrog's safety scores.