April 29, 2014

VUH receives top safety score from Leapfrog Group

Vanderbilt University Hospital recently earned a Spring 2014 patient safety grade of “A” from the Leapfrog Group, a coalition of public and private purchasers of employee health coverage that works to encourage health care safety, quality and affordability.

Leapfrog’s Hospital Safety Score uses 28 measures of publicly available hospital data to produce a single score representing a hospital’s overall capacity to keep patients safe from infections, injuries and medical errors.

“Safety should come first for our families when we pick a hospital, because errors and infections are common and deadly,” said Leah Binder, president & CEO of The Leapfrog Group, which produces the Hospital Safety Score. “No hospital is perfect, but we congratulate the clinicians, administration and staff of Vanderbilt University Hospital for achieving an “A” and showing us that you made the well-being of your patients your top priority.”

In the recent survey, approximately 2,500 hospitals across the nation were assigned grades of A, B, C, D or F for safety, and approximately 32 percent received an “A.” The safety score for each hospital can be found at http://hospitalsafetyscore.org/

The Leapfrog Group also publishes a Top Hospitals list each year in late November. Together, Leapfrog members provide health benefits to more than 37 million Americans in all 50 states.