Report: 43% of Calif. Hospitals Receive Top Marks for Patient Safety

More than 40% of California hospitals received an "A" grade for patient safety in new Hospital Safety Scores released by the Leapfrog Group, the Los Angeles Times reports (Terhune/Smith, Los Angeles Times, 4/29).

Details of Report

The Leapfrog Group's Hospital Safety Scores are released twice a year (Leapfrog Group release, 4/29).

For the latest scores, the Leapfrog Group assigned letter grades to 2,523 hospitals based on their performance on 28 safety measures. The group used data from:

• The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality;
• The American Hospital Association's annual survey;
• CDC;
• CMS and
• The Leapfrog Hospital Survey.

In the most recent release, the report for the first time displayed every grade that a hospital has received since the group first started scoring hospital safety in June 2012 (Clark, HealthLeaders Media, 4/29).

Report Findings

According to the latest report:

• 782 hospitals nationally received an "A";
• 719 hospitals received a "B";
• 859 hospitals received a "C";
• 143 received a "D"; and
• 20 hospitals received an "F" (Powderly, Healthcare Finance, 4/29).

Since fall 2014, 45 hospitals had their previous score change by at least two grades -- for better or for worse (Leapfrog Group release, 4/29).

In California, 248 hospitals were included in the rankings. Of those:

• 43% received an "A," up from 40% three years ago; and
• 37% received a "C," "D," or "F" (Los Angeles Times, 4/29).