There are many aspects of a hospital’s operations that contribute to overall quality and safety of care.  This leap aims to recognize a more expansive set of hospitals’ quality and safety activities, and bring more information to consumers about the level of safety they can expect.

The National Quality Forum published a 2006 Update to Safe Practices for Better Healthcare: A Consensus Report. The report endorsed 30 practices that should b e universally used in applicable clinical care settings to reduce the risk of harm to patients.  Included in the 30 practices are the original 3 Leapfrog leaps: Computer physician order entry, ICU physician staffing and Evidence-based Hospital Referral for certain high-risk procedures. For this new Leap, hospitals’ progress on the remaining 27 safe practices is being assessed. After completion of the online Leapfrog hospital survey, each hospital’s relative ranking compared with other hospitals will be displayed on the Leapfrog Web site.

For more information on Leapfrog’s NQF-Endorsed Safe Practices (Leapfrog Safe Practices Score) Leap see our fact sheet.