The Leapfrog Group, a distinguished non-profit organization committed to bettering patient safety, has revealed its fall 2024 Hospital Safety Grade, which holds an analysis of nearly 3,000 hospitals based on their capacity to prevent medical complications, accidents, and infections. The Hospital Safety Grade uses an array of up to 30 performance measures to rank individual hospitals from ‘A’ to ‘F,’ utilizing a publicly-accessible, peer-reviewed methodology. It is developed by leading experts in patient safety under the National Expert Panel’s guidance. Leapfrog’s analysts use this data to observe national performance trend lines and generate rankings between states.
In the fall 2024 report, Utah secured the top rank with the highest percentage of ‘A’ hospitals for the third successive cycle, followed by Virginia and Connecticut. The updated grades also highlight that hospitals are making strides in patient safety across varied performance measures, with considerable improvements seen in healthcare-associated infections, hand hygiene, and medication safety protocols. Leapfrog reported a notable decrease in the average Healthcare-Associated Infection (HAI) scores since their highest recorded peak in the fall of 2022.
The reported figures show a reduction in Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections (CLABSI) by 38 percent, Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTI) by 36 percent, and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections by 34 percent. In light of hand hygiene improvements, Leapfrog’s hand hygiene report of 2024 discloses that from the time stringent new standards began public reporting in 2020, hospitals achieving these standards have surged from 11 percent to an impressive 78 percent.
Furthermore, regarding medication safety, the most prevalent form of errors which occur in hospitals, the newly released Hospital Safety Grade discloses improvements in preventing such mishaps. One of such is the Computerized Prescriber Order Entry (CPOE), a system Leapfrog uses to monitor hospitals’ efficiency in catching common prescribing errors, like incorrect dosage or drug interaction issues.
Studies suggest, CPOE systems can reduce harm from prescription mistakes by as much as 55 percent. While in 2018 only 65.6 percent of hospitals met this standard, the fall 2024 figures show a notable increase with 88.1 percent compliance across the board. Detailed insights from the report can be found [here](URL).
Source: https://www.cleanlink.com/news/article/Report-Highlights-Notable-Decrease-in-HAIs-for-2024–31475