The Leapfrog Group Announces Spring 2024 Hospital Safety Grades
Atlanta, GA, May 1, 2024 – The Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit representing hundreds of the nation’s most influential employers and purchasers of health care, today announced the spring 2024 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades. The grades reflect preventable medical errors, accidents, injuries and infections that together kill more than 500 people a day in the United States.
In addition to issuing grades to almost 3,000 individual general hospitals, The Leapfrog Group ranks states based on the percentage of “A” hospitals, and Georgia ranks 23rd nationally. In Georgia, 80 hospitals were graded, and 21 earned an “A,” 22 earned a “B,” 31 earned a “C,” and 6 earned a “D.”
“With a slight decrease in ‘A’ hospitals since fall 2023, facilities in Georgia have immense opportunity to enhance patient safety,” said Natasha Taylor, Deputy Director of Georgia Watch, an organization dedicated to improving access to quality, affordable healthcare. “We hope through transparent reporting, hospitals will continue prioritizing patient safety. Ultimately, this will make a difference in individual lives and also empower informed patient decisions.”
“Hospitals even in the same city can differ greatly in patient safety. A patient’s choice of hospital could be a life-or-death decision, and the Hospital Safety Grade arms patients with data to help them make more informed decisions on where they seek care,” said President and CEO of The Leapfrog Group Leah Binder. “We are grateful to the hospitals in Georgia for their excellent work and determination to keep patients safe and prevent unnecessary pain and suffering.”
The latest Hospital Safety Grades also show that healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) continued to decline since fall 2022, when HAIs were at a five-year high, while patient experience has shown significant improvement since the last Safety Grade cycle in fall 2023.
About Georgia Watch
Founded in 2002, Georgia Watch is a statewide, non-profit consumer advocacy organization working to inform and protect Georgia consumers on matters that significantly impact their quality of life, including the effects of predatory business practices, the high cost of utilities and healthcare, and restricted access to the civil justice system.
About The Leapfrog Group
Founded in 2000 by large employers and other purchasers, The Leapfrog Group is an independent national nonprofit driving a movement for giant leaps for patient safety. The flagship Leapfrog Hospital Survey and new Leapfrog Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) Survey collect and transparently report hospital and ASC performance, empowering purchasers to find the highest-value care and giving consumers the lifesaving information they need to make informed decisions. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, Leapfrog’s other main initiative, assigns letter grades to hospitals based on their record of patient safety, helping consumers protect themselves and their families from errors, injuries, accidents, and infections. For more, follow us on Twitter and Facebook, and sign up for our newsletter.