The Leapfrog Group (Leapfrog) will announce its annual list of Top Hospitals today, an elite distinction widely acknowledged as one of the most competitive awards a United States hospital can receive. The award recognizes hospitals that exhibit excellence through the annual Leapfrog Hospital Survey in a combination of safety, quality and resource use standards set by Leapfrog, a nonprofit organization representing large purchasers of healthcare advocating for improvement in hospital care.
This year 94 Top Hospitals are being recognized. The Top Rural Hospital award is one of the few distinctions made available for rural and critical access hospitals, and this year rural hospitals excelled, with 25 making the list. They’re joined by 60 urban and nine children’s hospitals. Other highlights include Massachusetts doubling its number of Top Hospitals with a total of 10 and for the first time, hospitals in Alabama, Kentucky and Rhode Island receiving the award.
“These Top Hospitals represent the best of American health care and deserve to be recognized for their commitment to prioritizing the safety and well-being of their patients,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “The results of the Leapfrog Hospital Survey are used in high-stakes situations like national pay-for-performance programs – it’s crucial information used by purchasers, health-plans and consumers to assess the quality and safety of institutions nationwide. That’s why we’ll continue our push for hospitals to commit to transparency, and that means participating in and fully completing the Survey.”
The Leapfrog Hospital Survey compares hospitals’ performance on national standards of patient safety, quality, efficiency and management structures that prevent errors. The Survey provides the most comprehensive picture of how patients fare at individual institutions. The data collected also enables hospitals to benchmark their progress and measure the care they deliver.
Demonstrating the highest standards of care, Top Hospitals have lower infection rates, higher survival rates for high-risk procedures, decreased length of stay and fewer readmissions. Among the metrics included in the Leapfrog Hospital Survey are maternity care, evidence of a hospital’s ability to prevent medication errors and appropriate staffing to ensure quality of care.
To see the full list of honorees in 2014, please visit our Top Hospitals page.