The Leapfrog Group makes information about the performance of hospitals available to consumers, free-of-charge. Two sets of hospital ratings are available:

Leapfrog Hospital Insights Ratings — Available beginning in July 2007, these ratings offer valuable information on both the quality and efficiency of care for five important areas of inpatient hospital care:

• Heart attack—also known as acute myocardial infarction (AMI)
• Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI)—also known as angioplasty
• Coronary artery bypass graft (CABG)—also known as bypass surgery
• Pneumonia—also known as community acquired pneumonia (CAP)
• Deliveries/newborn care

If all hospitals in the US did as well as the best 25% of hospitals on the Leapfrog Hospital Insights measures, every year the health care system could (1)

• Save 66,000 lives
• Save $18.5 billion
• Avoid 145,000 readmissions
• Avoid 187,000 medication errors

Leapfrog Hospital Survey Ratings — Available since 2001, these ratings offer important information on four patient safety practices that are proven to reduce preventable medical mistakes:

• Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE)—CPOE systems allow doctors to enter medication orders using computers. These systems automatically check for drug interactions and help avoid errors due to poor handwriting.
• Evidence-based Hospital Referral (EHR)—Research shows that patients should be referred to hospitals with lots of experience and the best results for specific procedures, surgeries or conditions.
• ICU Physician Staffing (IPS). Research shows that care in ICUs is better when staffed by specially trained doctors called ‘intensivists’.
• Leapfrog Safe Practices Score—Hospitals can reduce harm by putting in place 27 procedures shown to reduce preventable medical mistakes.

If all US hospitals in urban areas put in place at least the first three patient safety practices, every year the health care system could (2,3)

• Save 65,341 lives
• Save $41.5 billion
• Avoid 907,600 medication errors

All measures in both hospital ratings systems are endorsed by the National Quality Forum (NQF), a non-profit organization created to develop a national strategy for health care quality measurement and reporting. Since 2001, Leapfrog has been an industry leader in providing reliable and meaningful information to consumers about the performance of America’s hospital. With the release of Leapfrog Hospital Insights, Leapfrog continues to make more and more of this critical information available.

(1) "Potential Benefits of National Implementation of LHRP." August 2006. Available at https://leapfrog.medstat.com/insights/references/OpportunityAnalysis.pdf

(2) Birkmeyer, John D., MD, and Justin B. Dimick, MD. “The Leapfrog Group’s Patient Safety Practices, 2003: The Potential Benefits of Universal Adoption.” February 2004. Also available at http://www.leapfroggroup.org/media/file/Leapfrog-Birkmeyer.pdf

(3) Conrad, Douglas A., PhD, and Mark Gardner, PhD. “Updated Economic Implications of the Leapfrog Group Patient Safety Standards: Final Report to the Leapfrog Group.” May 2005. Also available at http://www.leapfroggroup.org/media/file/Conrad_Updated_Economic_Implications_2_.pdf