The Leapfrog Group on July 19 published updates to the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade scoring methodology, which will take effect for the grades released in October.
The methodology changes include:
1. Changes to the scoring for computerized physician order entry. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade process includes a measure on hospitals' implementation and effective use of computerized physician order entry in inpatient units.
The CPOE standard in the Leapfrog Hospital Survey includes two criteria:
- At least 85 percent of inpatient medication orders must be entered through a CPOE system
- The hospital must participate in a simulation to test their CPOE system's ability to alert prescribers to at least 60 percent of serious or fatal medication ordering errors
2. Addition of a measure on bar code medication administration. Leapfrog is also adding a measure on hospitals' use of bar code medication administration to its Hospital Safety Grade methodology.
The new Leapfrog Hospital Survey measure includes four criteria:
- A bar code medication administration system within an electronic medication administration record must be used at the bedside in 100 percent of medical surgical units, intensive care units and labor and delivery units
- The system must include seven clinical decision support functions
- The hospital must ensure both the patient and the medication are scanned prior to medication administration at least 95 percent of the time
- The hospital must ensure at least six out of eight evidence-based processes and protocols are in place to avoid workarounds
To learn more about the methodology changes, click here.