Several healthcare institutions have raised concerns over the legitimacy of safety scores allocated by the Leapfrog Group, arguing that the grades inaccurately represent their safety and quality performance. Piedmont Medical Center situated in Rock Hill, South Carolina, along with Alabama’s Huntsville Hospital and Madison Hospital have taken a stand against these ratings.
These hospitals, among others, refrained from submitting data to Leapfrog’s biannual safety grade survey – a course of action they argue resulted in their misleading scores. They claim that the Leapfrog Group proceeded to issue ratings through incomplete information. According to Leah Binder, the president, and CEO of Leapfrog, around 20% of the approximately 2,500 general acute hospitals assessed failed to submit data for Leapfrog’s spring 2025 survey. Out of these hospitals, she mentioned, over 400 ended up with a grade of ‘C’ or higher.
Binder emphasized that it’s entirely possible for a hospital to secure a good grade without participating in the Leapfrog survey. She disclosed that Leapfrog implements score imputation in cases where the exact data is missing. Concerns raised by institutions, she informed, pertained to merely four out of the thirty measures that Leapfrog takes into account for hospital safety grades. She invited these hospitals to actively focus on these measures to resolve the issue.
Alabama’s Huntsville Hospital and Madison Hospital expressed their commitment to utilize any necessary resources to complete future Leapfrog surveys. Contrastingly, Piedmont Medical Center voiced complaints about what they think is Leapfrog’s deceptive scoring system. They claimed that the system penalizes the hospitals that sit out the assessment while rewarding institutions that either pay or deliver data freely. Binder refuted this claim, assuring that no exchange of finance is involved in their assessment process. She stated that Leapfrog neither imposes any ‘pay-to-play’ norms for hospitals to participate nor charges the public to access the safety data.
Leapfrog has faced litigation in the past over their ranking methodology, with plaintiffs asserting that their rankings damage reputations by unjustifiably penalizing non-participating organizations. However, the Leapfrog CEO described them as attempts to overlook essential safety information and has dismissed the allegations as being factually incorrect.
Source: https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/hospitals-push-back-on-low-leapfrog-grades/