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Leapfrog to Target Rural Hospitals to Participate in Hospital Survey In 2004, with the addition of the NQF Safe Practices leap, Leapfrog’s Hospital Quality and Safety Survey became applicable to most acute care hospitals including rural hospitals. In 2004, Leapfrog’s Board and Regional Roll-Out leaders agreed to only “invite” rural hospitals to participate with the expectation that after a year of exposure to the survey, they would be ready for “targeted” status. This year, rural hospitals will be targeted to complete the NQF-Safe Practices and evidence-based hospital referral (if procedures are done electively) sections of the survey. Computer physician order entry (CPOE) and ICU physician staffing are still considered a stretch for rural hospitals because of the staffing and resource constraints involved in fully complying with them; they may complete these portions if they wish to do so. Looking to the future, both the Institute of Medicine and the National Quality Forum are planning to establish rural measurement expert panels to come up with some sort of standard measurement scheme for rural hospitals. No time lines have been established, but depending on their recommendations, Leapfrog hopes to endorse their work. JCAHO is also in the process of finalizing its ICU outcomes measurement scheme, which Leapfrog hopes to adopt as a substitute or complement to its IPS leap. [1-05] |