The Fall 2024 Hospital Safety Grade report from nonprofit Leapfrog Group shows that hospitals are making progress in patient safety across several performance measures, including notable improvements in healthcare-associated infections, Hand hygiene and medication safety.
The report evaluates the ability of almost 3,000 hospitals to prevent medical errors, accidents and infections. The Hospital Safety Grade uses up to 30 performance measures to assign an “A, “B,” “C,” “D,” or “F” to individual hospitals and uses a public, peer-reviewed methodology calculated by hospital safety experts. patient based on guidance from a national panel of experts.
The report also tracks performance at the state level. For fall 2024, Utah ranks first with the highest percentage of “A” hospitals for the third consecutive cycle, followed by Virginia and Connecticut in second and third.
“Preventable deaths and injuries in hospitals have been a major policy concern for decades. Therefore, it is good news that Leapfrog’s latest safety ratings reveal that hospitals across the country are making notable progress in safety.” of patients, saving countless lives,” said Leah Binder, President and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, in a statement. “Next, we need hospitals to accelerate this progress, because no one should die from a preventable error in a hospital.”
Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs)
Since Leapfrog reported hospital safety ratings in fall 2022, when HAI rates reached their highest peak since 2016, average HAI scores have dropped dramatically:
• Central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) decreased by 38%
• Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) decreased by 36%
• Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) decreased by 34%
Hand hygiene
As Leapfrog detailed in its 2024 Hand Hygiene Report, since Leapfrog began publicly reporting on a strict new standard for hand hygiene in 2020, the percentage of hospitals meeting the standard has skyrocketed from 11% to 78%. .
Medication safety
Medication errors are the most common type of error that occur in hospitals, and the new Hospital Safety Grade suggests improvements in the way hospitals prevent them. Two of the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade measures show this progress:
Computerized Prescriber Order Entry (CPOE): Leapfrog tracks how well hospitals use CPOE systems to detect common prescribing errors, such as prescribing the wrong dosage or prescribing a drug with a dangerous interaction with other medications the patient takes. Studies have shown that CPOE systems can reduce harm caused by prescriber errors by up to 55%. In 2018, only 65.6% of hospitals met the Leapfrog standard, while this year that number increased to 88.1%.
Barcode Medication Administration (BCMA): Leapfrog rates hospitals on their implementation of BCMA systems, which use bedside barcodes to ensure the right patient receives the right medication at the right time. In 2018, 47.3% of classified hospitals complied with the standard, while this year 86.9% did so.
Trends by state
States with the highest percentages of “A” hospitals are Utah, Virginia, Connecticut, North Carolina, New Jersey, California, Rhode Island, Idaho, Pennsylvania, Colorado and South Carolina. California cracks the top 10 for the first time since fall 2014. There were no “A” hospitals in Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota or Vermont.
“Despite the improvements seen in Safety Grade this fall, significant variation in performance remains across U.S. hospitals,” Binder added. “That’s why it’s so important for people to look at ratings when making decisions about seeking care. “Not all hospitals are the same.”
