ATLANTA- April 26, 2016 – Georgia Watch announced today the release of the April 2016 Hospital Safety Scores, published by national nonprofit watchdog The Leapfrog Group. Assigning A, B, C, D, and F letter grades, the Score provides the most complete picture of avoidable hospital errors, accidents and infections that kill or harm tens of thousands of patients every year. New for this update are the grading factors in five measures of patient experience that have been correlated with the hospital’s safety record, as well as two common and deadly infections, MRSA and C.diff. In Metro Atlanta, grades were assigned to 17 hospitals with only one hospital, Emory University Hospital, receiving an A, the highest letter grade, meaning that this hospital is safer than others in Atlanta.
A new report released alongside The Leapfrog Group’s Hospital Safety Score April 2016 update finds that 33,000 lives would be saved if all hospitals performed as safely as A rated hospitals in Atlanta. Compared to A hospitals, patients face a 9% higher risk of dying from a preventable harm in B hospitals, 35% higher in C hospitals and 50% higher in D and F hospitals. The report was produced for Leapfrog by Matt Austin, Ph.D., director of The Leapfrog Hospital Survey, assistant professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at John Hopkins University School of Medicine, and faculty member at the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality.
“Through their commitment to patient safety, hospitals save lives. Those are the lives of your neighbors, your friends, and your family, protected at hospitals that don’t give up on the quest to be safe,” says Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, which administers the Hospital Safety Score. “Ultimately, we want all hospitals to be A-level, because our communities deserve no less. “We thank Georgia Watch for its leadership in Metro Atlanta that is making a real difference.”
“We want to raise awareness among Georgia consumers that patient safety data is out there,” says Beth Stephens, Health Access Program Director at Georgia Watch. “There will always be more work to be done in our area to provide the best care for families living in our communities. We are very proud to work with all of our hospitals and recognize the commitment they are making to improve care.”
View an entire list of hospital rankings for Georgia
The Hospital Safety Score assigns A, B, C, D and F grades to more than 2,500 U.S. hospitals twice per year. It is calculated by top patient safety experts, peer-reviewed, fully transparent and free to the public. For more information about the Hospital Safety Score or to view the list of state rankings, please visit www.hospitalsafetyscore.org. To learn how employers are footing the bill for hospital errors, visit Leapfrog’s Cost Calculator.
About The Leapfrog Group
Founded in 2000 by large employers and other purchasers, The Leapfrog Group is a national nonprofit organization driving a movement for giant leaps forward in the quality and safety of American health care. The flagship Leapfrog Hospital Survey collects and transparently reports hospital performance, empowering purchasers to find the highest-value care and giving consumers the lifesaving information they need to make informed decisions. Hospital Safety Score, 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.
About Georgia Watch
Founded in 2002, Georgia Watch is a statewide consumer advocacy organization whose mission is to empower and protect Georgia consumers on matters that impact their wallets and quality of life through education, advocacy and policy development. Georgia Watch’s Health Access Program seeks to ensure access to safe, quality and affordable healthcare for all Georgians.
Download PDF of press release
Download PDF of Spring2016HospitalSafetyScoreStateRankings