The Leapfrog Group, a human rights non-profit organization focused on improving patient safety, has released its fall 2023 Hospital Safety Grades. These grades measure how effectively around 3,000 general hospitals across the United States prevent medical mishaps, including errors and the spread of infections.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the recent grades reveal progress in the reduction of healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs), which had considerably risen during the global health crisis. The grading system resulted in almost 30% of hospitals receiving an ‘A,’ 24% earned a ‘B,’ 39% awarded a ‘C,’ 7% fell to a ‘D,’ and less than 1% received an ‘F.’ The positivity lies in the fact that over 85% of hospitals showed improvement in at least one of the three major infections.
Among all states, Utah leads with the highest percentage of ‘A’ ranked hospitals this fall, followed by Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Connecticut, Montana, Tennessee, Florida and Texas. Conversely, the most underperforming states were Vermont, Wyoming, Delaware, North Dakota, and Washington, D.C., as none of their hospitals earned an ‘A’ grade.
A high point of encouragement is the pre and post-pandemic patient safety data, as hospitals have notably improved in infection control after an alarming spike recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this noteworthy improvement, Leapfrog Group’s CEO, Leah Binder, stated that the quality of patient experience did not positively correlate and continue to drop. The cut-off grades are the initial grading system to encapsulate hospitals’ performance following the pandemic. Patients report a notable decline concerning their healthcare experience following a hospital visit for the second consecutive year, with every state recording a critical drop in reported patient experience between fall 2021 and fall 2023.
The most significant declines in patient experience concern the categories of ‘communication about medicines’ and ‘responsiveness of hospital staff’; both key factors linked to preventable medical errors, as noted in recent studies.
Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is an exclusive rating system based on hospital prevention of medical errors and patient harm. Grades are updated biannually in spring and fall, emphasizing transparency and being freely accessible to the public. Further details related to individual hospital grades and state rankings are available on HospitalSafetyGrade.org.