Healthcare Technology Featured Article

June 07, 2012

Safety Scores Issued to U.S. Hospitals


Safety, above all other concerns, is a very significant aspect of a person’s stay at a hospital, wouldn’t you think? It is the professional’s job to ensure that the patient is safe, and receives the best care possible during that period of time. But did you know that roughly 400 people die each day because of several, intolerable mistakes?

 Based on recent studies, explained in the Leapfrog Group’s informative Safety article, one out of every four Medicare patients will leave a hospital with a potentially fatal issue that they did not have before being hospitalized.   That means that at least one medication error occurs per day, resulting in more than 180,000 American deaths every year from hospital accidents, errors, and infections.

In an attempt to reverse this chronic cycle, The Leapfrog Group, better described as an independent national not-for-profit run by large purchasers of health benefits, have developed an A, B, C, D or F, Hospital Safety Score, which will be embedded in more than 2,600 U.S. hospitals, to ensure safety, and make patients aware of which are some of the best hospitals, and warn against the worst.

“The Leapfrog’s Group’s goal is to give patients the vital information they need and deserve before even entering a hospital,” explained Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “We hope people will use this score to talk with their doctor, make informed decisions about where to seek care, and take the right precautions during a hospital stay.”  The Leapfrog Group’s members and business coalitions on health across the country, will be working collaboratively to engage communities, employers, health plans, and hospitals in utilizing the Hospital Safety Score to improve safety. 

The Hospital Safety Score website lets visitors and future patients search these scores for free, providing information on how the public can protect themselves and loved ones during a hospital stay as well.   It is about time that we truly examine our health facilities; to save lives and make it known that these “accidents” are taken quite seriously.




Edited by Brooke Neuman
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