Getting hospitals to provide their quality information will enable purchasers and consumers to make informed health care decisions.

The Leapfrog Group Hospital Survey asks hospitals to report on Leapfrog’s four recommended hospital quality and safety practices, which are all part of National Quality Forum’s 27 Hospital Safe Practices.  These practices include:

- Use of computerized prescription systems (Computer Physician Order Entry)
- Selecting hospitals with the best results or extensive experience for select high-risk     conditions and procedures (Evidence-based Hospital Referral)
- Staffing intensive care units with trained specialists (ICU Physician Staffing)
- 13 other patient safety practices arrived at by national consensus via the National Quality Forum (Leapfrog Safe Practices Score)

The Leapfrog Group’s standards for the first three practices alone could save around 65,300 lives and prevent between 567,000 and 900,000 serious medication errors each year (John D. Birkmeyer, MD, University of Michigan, 2004) and could save the health care system up to $41.5 billion per year (Conrad and Gardner, University of Washington, 2005).  Please see link to full text of the Hospital Survey:  http://www.leapfroggroup.org/for_hospitals

Why should hospitals report to Leapfrog?

Hospitals contacted by a Regional Rollout and asked to submit information will be noted for either participation or their lack of participation on Leapfrog’s Website and in the database for the survey.  The impact of not reporting when asked might include:
• Loss of employer referrals, contracts
• Movement to a different tier for co-pays or premiums
• Loss of incentives from employers engaged in pay-for-performance programs
• Lack of identification within national publications that report on hospital performance measures, for example Consumer’s Digest, HealthGrades, and individual large employer websites, such as General Electric

Hospitals that do report can benefit in the following ways:
• Preferential referrals from plans and employer coalitions
• Preferred tiers with lower patient co-pays and dividends
• Incentives from plans and employers engaged in pay-for-performance
• National coverage through the website, data sales, media attention
• Recognition from local employers and local media coverage
• Engaged and interested physicians, patients, plans and trustees
• Lives and dollars saved through implementation of four quality and safety practices

How is the survey scored?  Thomson Healthcare, on behalf of Leapfrog, takes the data submitted by hospitals and applies an algorithm developed by Leapfrog and our patient safety experts to come up with the scores that appear on our web site.  For the full scoring algorithm, please see this link: https://leapfrog.medstat.com/pdf/scoring.pdf

The Leapfrog Group reports a hospital’s score using symbols ranging from one bar to four bars.  Please see definitions below.  Note: If a hospital has been targeted and does not report, it will not receive the notation, “declined to respond.” 

Fully implemented Leapfrog’s recommended quality and safety standards (Four Bars).
 
Substantial progress in implementing Leapfrog’s recommended quality and safety standards (Three bars).
 
Some progress in implementing Leapfrog’s recommended quality and safety standards (Two Bars).
 
Willing to report publicly; did not yet meet Leapfrog’s criteria for a good early stage effort (One Bar) .
 
Not Applicable - e.g. Pancreatic resection does not apply because hospital does not
perform pancreatic resections (NA).
 
Not Targeted - Leapfrog members did not request the hospital’s response to these
questions but the hospital has voluntarily participated in other sections of the survey.
For rural hospitals, not all leaps apply. The Safe Practices Score (made up of 27 NQF-endorsed Safe Practices) is the first leap that applies to rural hospitals (NT).

Click here to view the Leapfrog Group Hospital Survey results for a hospital in your local area.