HPCI News: Iowa Ranked 29th in "A" Patient Safety Hospitals
To: Members and Selected Others
When ranked by percentage of hospitals earning an “A”, Iowa ranks 29th in the U.S. according to the November Hospital Safety Grades released by The Leapfrog Group. Of the 32 Iowa hospitals eligible to be graded, nine earned an “A” grade or 28%. That compares to 61% in Wisconsin (35 of 57), 44% in Minnesota (16 of 36) and 40% in Illinois (45 of 113).
Hospital safety breakdowns - including patient injuries, accidents and infections – kill over 200,000 Americans each year, making these errors the third leading cause of death in the U.S. According to Leapfrog President and CEO Leah Binder, “patients should be aware that hospitals are not equally competent at protecting them from injuries and infections. We believe everyone has the right to know which hospitals are the safest”.
The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade program assigns A, B, C, D and F letter grades to more than 2,600 U.S. hospitals bi-annually. It is the gold standard measure of patient safety in the United States. Of the 2,633 evaluated, 844 earned an “A”, 658 earned a “B’, 954 earned a “C”, 157 earned a “D” and 20 earned an “F”.
Iowa hospitals that have consistently received a high grade (“A” and “B”) over the last three years are: Finley, Dubuque; Mary Greeley, Ames; Mercy, Clinton, Mercy, Cedar Rapids; Mercy, Dubuque; Grinnell Regional, Grinnell; Skiff, Newton and Spencer Hospital, Spencer.
The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is calculated by top safety experts, peer reviewed, fully transparent and free to the public. For more information about the Safety Grade, as well as individual hospital grades and state rankings, visit www.hospitalsafetygrade.org. Visitors to the website can also find videos, tips for patients and a Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade mobile app for IOS and Android devices.
Paul M. Pietzsch, MPH
HPCI - IHBA Office
4430 Ashley Park Drive
West Des Moines, Iowa 50265
(515) 778-6300