Patient safety improves, never events decrease, according to Leapfrog Group

Hospitals made strides in patient safety in the past decade, according to information collected from the Leapfrog Group. The nonprofit watch dog estimates that about 16,000 lives were saved over the last 10 years due to these improvements.

The Leapfrog Group recently released the fall 2022 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade results. According to a press release on its website, “this release marks the 10th anniversary of the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, which assigns a letter grade to nearly 3,000 U.S. general hospitals based on how well they protect patients from preventable medical errors, accidents, injuries, and infections.” 

Positive results were noted in both a decrease in never events and a decrease in healthcare-associated infections. 

Two never events that both decreased by around 25% were incidents of falls and trauma and incidents of objects unintentionally left in a body after surgery.

There was also encouraging pre-pandemic progress on healthcare-associated infections: MRSA decreased by 22%, central line-associated bloodstream infection decreased by 43%, and C. Diff decreased by 8%.

“Never in history have we seen across-the-board improvement in patient safety until this last decade, coinciding with the history of the Hospital Safety Grade,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “We salute hospitals for this milestone and encourage them to accelerate their hard work saving patient lives.”

Regarding hospital grades, 30% of hospitals received an "A," 28% received a "B," 36% received a "C," 6% received a "D," and 1% received an "F.” The top ten states with the highest percentages of "A" hospitals are New Hampshire, Virginia, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, New Jersey, North Carolina, Maine, Pennsylvania, and Florida.