Northwest Community Healthcare (NCH) receives ‘A’ for Patient Safety

Spring 2019 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade

Northwest Community Healthcare (NCH) has been awarded an ‘A’ from The Leapfrog Group Spring 2019 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade. The designation recognizes NCH’s efforts in protecting patients from harm and providing safer health care. The Leapfrog Group is a national nonprofit organization committed to improving health care quality and safety for consumers and purchasers. The Safety Grade assigns an ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’ or ‘F’ grade to hospitals across the country based on their performance in preventing medical errors, injuries, accidents, infections and other harms to patients in their care.

The grade is produced using guidance provided by Leapfrog’s Blue Ribbon Expert Panel of patient safety experts from across the nation.

“Achieving an ‘A’ Hospital Safety Grade from Leapfrog acknowledges the commitment of our physicians and team members to provide safe, high quality care to every patient, every time,” says NCH President and CEO Stephen Scogna. “Since our founding 60 years ago as an independent hospital, NCH has remained true to its mission of delivering exceptional care to our community.”

Leapfrog Group President and CEO Leah Binder says, “being recognized nationally as an ‘A’ hospital is an accomplishment the whole community should take pride in. Hospitals that earn an ‘A’ grade are making it a priority to protect patients from preventable medical harm and error. We congratulate hospital leaders, board members, staff, volunteers and clinicians who work so hard to earn this A.” 

Developed under the guidance of a national expert panel, the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses 28 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign grades to more than 2,600 U.S. acute-care hospitals twice per year. The Hospital Safety Grade’s methodology is peer-reviewed and fully transparent, and the results are free to the public.

More about the importance of getting good grades can be found in this USA Today article.

About The Leapfrog Group

Founded in 2000 by large employers and other purchasers, The Leapfrog Group is a national nonprofit organization driving a movement for giant leaps forward in the quality and safety of American health care. The flagship Leapfrog Hospital Survey collects and transparently reports hospital performance, empowering purchasers to find the highest-value care and giving consumers the lifesaving information they need to make informed decisions. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, Leapfrog’s other main initiative, assigns letter grades to hospitals based on their record of patient safety, helping consumers protect themselves and their families from errors, injuries, accidents and infections.