Updating Your Survey

Updating or Correcting a Previously Submitted Leapfrog Hospital Survey

Hospitals have the opportunity to update or correct previously submitted Survey responses at any point during the Survey Cycle (April 1 - November 30). Please review the Survey Deadlines page.

Most updates or corrections are made:

At the request of Leapfrog:
- Following Leapfrog’s Extensive Monthly Data Verification, the Primary Survey Contact, Secondary Survey Contact, and System Survey Contact will receive an email from the Help Desk detailing potential reporting errors.
Following On-Site Data Verification:
- Hospitals selected for On-Site Data Verification will receive a report that will indicate any responses that need to be updated or corrected.
At the discretion of the hospital:
- To correct a data entry or reporting error.
- To reflect a change in status or performance on a measure (e.g., closed a unit, stopped performing a procedure, or implemented a new policy, etc.).
- To provide more current responses based on reporting periods outlined in the hard copy of the Survey.

Following any updates, hospitals should always complete the steps for verifying submission provided in the Online Survey Tool Guide available on the Get Started page. Leapfrog will not score or publicly report any updates that have not been submitted via the Online Survey Tool.

Updating a Survey after Receiving a Help Desk Email

Leapfrog conducts an Extensive Monthly Data Verification of responses submitted to the Leapfrog Hospital Survey starting with Surveys submitted by the June 30 Submission Deadline and monthly thereafter until the Online Survey Tool is taken offline on January 31. Following the Extensive Monthly Data Verification, the Primary Survey Contact, Secondary Survey Contact, and System Contact are notified by email of any Survey responses that need to be reviewed and/or updated by the hospital.

If you receive a Data Verification email, you are required to document that your original responses were correct or update/correct your previously submitted Leapfrog Hospital Survey by the end of the same month using the original reporting period that was used for that section of the Survey in the original submission. For example, if a hospital submitted a Survey for the first time on August 20, then received a Data Verification email at the beginning of September, they would update their responses based on the reporting period used in the August 20 submission.

Hospitals that receive a Category A Data Verification message at the beginning of the month for any measure will have until the end of that same month to contact the Help Desk to either (1) document that the original response was correct or (2) correct the data entry or reporting error, or they will be publicly reported as “Pending Leapfrog Verification” for that measure. This term is used to indicate that the hospital has self-reported Survey responses that are under further review by Leapfrog.

If any Category A Data Verification messages are not resolved by January 31 (when the Online Hospital Survey Tool is taken offline), the entire Survey will be decertified, and the hospital will be publicly reported as “Declined to Respond” for the entire Leapfrog Hospital Survey.

Updating a Survey following On-Site Data Verification

Hospitals that are selected for On-Site Data Verification will receive a findings report. If the findings report details any responses that need to be updated or corrected, please contact the Help Desk.

Making General Updates (for hospitals that have not received a Help Desk email)

Leapfrog offers hospitals multiple reporting periods so that they can report the most current data. Except for Section 4E: High-Risk Deliveries (VON data only), Section 7B: Healthcare-Associated Infections, and Section 9D: Patient Follow-up (OP-32), updating a Survey is optional. However, we do recommend that if your performance or if a structure has changed significantly, you update your Survey within 30 days. In addition, hospitals should update their Surveys if they become aware of any reporting errors or data inaccuracies in their previous submission.

Hospitals may update one or more sections of the Survey, without updating the entire Survey. In addition, hospitals are not required to retake the CPOE Evaluation Tool if making updates to Section 2A: CPOE questions #3 and #4.

General updates and corrections can be made at any point during the Survey Cycle (April 1 – November 30). The months of December and January are reserved for correcting data entry (i.e., correcting data entry errors) or reporting corrections (i.e., in response to Leapfrog’s Extensive Monthly Data Verification) to previously submitted sections of the Survey. Any updates made to reflect a change in performance must be made before the November 30 Late Submission and Performance Update Deadline. Updates made to reflect a change in performance after November 30 will not be scored or publicly reported. New sections of the Survey submitted after November 30 will not be scored or publicly reported.

Hospitals that are submitting general updates should:

Use the stated reporting period at the top of each section selected based on the date of your resubmission.
For Section 4: Maternity Care and Section 6A-6B: NQF Safe Practice #1 and #2, update responses to ALL questions within the section they wish to update using the same reporting period. For example, if a hospital submitted a Survey for the first time in June and then wanted to update the responses for the Cesarean Birth questions in subsection 4B in November, they would update the entire Section 4: Maternity Care based on the updated reporting period for November.

For information on Leapfrog’s automatic updates to the VON data in Section 4E: High-Risk Deliveries, the NHSN data in Section 7B: Healthcare-Associated Infections, or the CMS data in Section 9D: Patient Follow-up, please review the Section 4E: High-Risk Deliveries Measure Specifications, the Join NHSN Group page, and the Section 9D: Patient Follow-up Measure Specifications.