The nonprofit Leapfrog Group’s fall 2024 Hospital Security Grade report exhibits that hospitals are making progress in affected person security throughout a number of efficiency measures together with notable enhancements in healthcare-associated infections, hand hygiene and drugs security.
The report evaluates almost 3,000 hospitals on their potential to forestall medical errors, accidents and infections. The Hospital Security Grade makes use of as much as 30 efficiency measures to assign an “A, “B,” “C,” “D” or “F” to particular person hospitals and makes use of a public, peer-reviewed methodology, calculated by affected person security specialists beneath the steering of a nationwide professional panel.
The report additionally tracks state-level efficiency. For fall 2024, Utah ranks primary with the best proportion of “A” hospitals for the third cycle in a row, adopted by Virginia and Connecticut in second and third.
“Preventable deaths and hurt in hospitals have been a serious coverage concern for many years. So, it’s excellent news that Leapfrog’s newest Security Grades reveal that hospitals throughout the nation are making notable good points in affected person security, saving numerous lives,” mentioned Leah Binder, President and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, in a press release. “Subsequent, we want hospitals to speed up this progress—as a result of nobody ought to must die from a preventable error in a hospital.”
Healthcare-Related Infections (HAIs)
Since Leapfrog reported Hospital Security Grades in fall 2022, when HAI charges have been at their highest peak since 2016, common HAI scores have declined dramatically:
• Central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) decreased by 38%
• Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) decreased by 36%
• Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) decreased by 34%
Hand Hygiene
As Leapfrog detailed in its 2024 Hand Hygiene Report, since Leapfrog started public reporting a tricky new commonplace for hand hygiene in 2020, the share of hospitals attaining the usual has soared from 11% to 78%.
Treatment Security
Treatment errors are the commonest sort of error that happen in hospitals and the brand new Hospital Security Grade suggests enhancements in how hospitals forestall them. Two of the measures within the Leapfrog Hospital Security Grade present this progress:
Computerized Prescriber Order Entry (CPOE): Leapfrog tracks how nicely hospitals use CPOE programs to catch frequent errors in prescribing, akin to prescribing the mistaken dose or prescribing a medicine with a harmful interplay with different drugs the affected person takes. Research have proven CPOE programs can cut back hurt from prescriber errors by as a lot as 55%. In 2018, solely 65.6% of hospitals met Leapfrog’s Customary, whereas this 12 months, that quantity rose to 88.1%.
Bar Code Treatment Administration (BCMA): Leapfrog scores hospitals on deployment of BCMA programs, which use barcodes on the bedside to make sure the appropriate affected person will get the appropriate treatment on the proper time. In 2018, 47.3% of graded hospitals met the usual, whereas this 12 months, 86.9% did.
Tendencies by State
The states with the best percentages of “A” hospitals are Utah, Virginia, Connecticut, North Carolina, New Jersey, California, Rhode Island, Idaho, Pennsylvania, Colorado and South Carolina. California ranks within the prime 10 for the primary time since fall 2014. There have been no “A” hospitals in Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota or Vermont.
“Regardless of enhancements seen on this fall’s Security Grade, important variation in efficiency stays throughout U.S. hospitals,” Binder added. “That’s why it’s so necessary for folks to seek the advice of grades when making choices about in search of care. All hospitals aren’t the identical.”