Leapfrog Group Reveals 2014 Top Hospitals

WASHINGTON — The Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., announced its annual list of top hospitals. The award, which is being presented to 94 facilities this year, recognizes hospitals that qualify as excellent, according to Leapfrog’s annual hospital survey. The survey analyzes a combination of safety, quality and resource use standards set by the organization.

Leapfrog represents large purchasers of health care and provides statistics and research on how hospitals can improve their operations. In order to qualify as a top hospital, hospitals must meet standards for medication error prevention, ICU physician staffing, and high-risk surgeries and procedures, among other factors.

Research has shown that more than 1 million serious medication errors occur each year in hospitals, with 7,000 deaths annually from adverse drug events (ADEs), according to Leapfrog. ICU physician staffing is important because mortality rates are significantly lower in hospitals with ICUs managed exclusively by board-certified intensivists, physicians trained in critical care medicine. When it comes to high-risk surgeries and procedures, research indicates that a patient’s risk of dying is reduced by approximately two to four times, depending on the procedure.

Leapfrog noted important highlights from this year’s selection of hospitals. The Top Rural Hospital Award, for example, is one of the few distinctions made available for rural and critical access hospitals, and this year rural hospitals excelled, with 25 making the list. They’re joined by 60 urban hospitals and nine children’s hospitals. Other highlights include Massachusetts doubling its number of top hospitals with a total of 10. Also, for the first time, hospitals in Alabama, Kentucky and Rhode Island received the award.
“These top hospitals represent the best of American health care and deserve to be recognized for their commitment to prioritizing the safety and well-being of their patients,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, in a statement. “The results of the Leapfrog Hospital Survey are used in high-stakes situations like national pay-for-performance programs — it’s crucial information used by purchasers, health plans and consumers to assess the quality and safety of institutions nationwide. That’s why we’ll continue our push for hospitals to commit to transparency, and that means participating in and fully completing the survey.”

Leapfrog’s annual survey provides the most comprehensive picture of how patients fare at individual institutions, according to Leapfrog. The data collected also enables hospitals to benchmark their progress and measure the care they deliver.

Top hospitals have lower infection rates, higher survival rates for high-risk procedures, and decreased length of stay and fewer readmissions, according to the organization. To see the full list of honorees in 2014, go to www.LeapfrogGroup.org/TopHospitals.