Multiple Vanderbilt Health hospitals have been recognized among the safest hospitals in the United States after receiving a fall 2022 safety grade of “A” from the Leapfrog group.
Vanderbilt University Hospital, Vanderbilt Bedford County Hospital and Vanderbilt Tullahoma-Harton Hospital received A grades, and Vanderbilt Wilson County Hospital received a B grade.
Leapfrog is 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 numerous measures of hospital data to produce a single score representing a hospital’s overall capacity to keep patients safe from infections, injuries and medical errors.
These measures come from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), secondary data sources and the Leapfrog Hospital Survey, which VUMC completes annually to evaluate systems and processes in place to support outcomes. This extensive survey includes things such as an assessment of whether a culture of safety survey is done every two years, use of barcode medication administration, test of the computer order entry system, etc.
The measures are weighted and then combined to produce a single composite score that is published as an A, B, C, D or F letter grade.
“The Leapfrog “A” score continues to be an important measure, closely reflecting the enormous efforts behind the quality and safety of the care we provide. I want to recognize the unwavering commitment demonstrated each day by our outstanding doctors, nurses and staff to reach this goal, and congratulate each of our hospitals on this success,” said C. Wright Pinson, MBA, MD, Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Chief Health System Officer for Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
To determine a safety grade, Leapfrog not only looks at outcome measures, but also processes measures such as staff responsiveness and structural measures like the overall hospital environment and how thoroughly technology is embedded into the delivery of care.
“It is an incredible accomplishment for our Vanderbilt Health hospitals to receive the Leapfrog recognition as acknowledgement of continued focus on providing safe, reliable care to the patients we serve in our communities,” said Jenny Slayton, DNP, RN, Senior Vice President for Quality, Safety and Risk Prevention at VUMC. “Congratulations to our Vanderbilt Health teams, who are relentlessly focused on improving patient care and driving the outcomes of the Leapfrog score. This would not be possible without our great teams.”
In the recent survey, nearly 3,000 hospitals across the nation were assigned grades of A, B, C, D or F for safety, and only 30% received an “A.”
The safety score for each hospital can be found at http://hospitalsafetyscore.org/.
Leapfrog members provide health benefits to more than 37 million Americans in all 50 states.
