Updated Leapfrog Hospital Safety Scores: Not Much Improvement

The Leapfrog Group has issued its Fall 2013 update of hospital safety scores, which shows small gains at best since the last update in May.  “On average, there was no improvement in hospitals’ reported performance on the measures included in the score, with the exception of hospital adoption for computerized physician order entry,” the organization contends. “The expansion in adoption of this life-saving technology suggests that federal policy efforts to improve hospital technology have shown some success.”

In the new update, 813 of 2,539 hospitals that issued a Hospital Safety Score earned a grade of A, a rate of 32 percent compared with 31 percent in May. In the fall survey, 661 hospitals received a B grade, 893 got a C, 150 had a D and 22 flunked. Only 3.5 percent of the surveyed hospitals improved by two or more grade levels.