The University of Chicago Medicine earned its 15th “A” grade in hospital safety from the Leapfrog Group, making it one of just 41 health care providers across the country to have received consecutive top marks from the industry watchdog group.
The pool of hospitals with continuous A’s shrank by one in this spring’s results. In fall 2018, 42 institutions earned the top score in all 15 survey periods. In spring 2018, 49 had such a record.
“Our record is a testament to this organization’s high standards and practices, which are borne out every day through the tireless work of our faculty, nurses and broader clinical and non-clinical staff,” said Kenneth S. Polonsky, MD, executive vice president for medical affairs at the University of Chicago.
In the current grading cycle, more than 2,600 hospitals were surveyed based on 28 publicly available safety metrics, which are selected and reviewed by a panel of experts. Data range from infection rates, surgical complications and medical errors to safety problems and staffing. Leapfrog assigns a letter grade to hospitals based on their performance in preventing medical errors, infections and other harms. The results, which were released Wednesday, may be viewed on Leapfrog’s website.
“Hospitals that have earned an ‘A’ grade for every cycle of the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade are making patient safety the priority it needs to be in every acute-care hospital in the United States,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “The leadership at these distinguished hospitals is committed to putting patients first, every minute of every day.”
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