AdventHealth hospitals earn high grades for patient safety

The Leapfrog Group, a national watchdog nonprofit for hospital quality and safety, has released its Fall 2023 Hospital Safety Grades, which assigns a letter grade to hospitals based on performance measures for patient safety.

The latest grades revealed 74% of AdventHealth hospitals assessed by Leapfrog across the country earned an “A” grade for meeting the highest safety standards in health care.

Leah Binder, president and CEO for The Leapfrog Group, commended AdventHealth saying, “Earning an ‘A’ grade means AdventHealth made a true commitment to put patients first. We congratulate the leadership, Board, clinicians, staff, and volunteers who all had a role to play in this achievement.”

The organization’s consistent excellence in patient safety was recognized in 2022 when Leapfrog granted AdventHealth the Emerald Award for Outstanding Achievement by a Health Care System – the first and only health system to earn the distinction.

In this assessment cycle, which marks the first post-pandemic evaluation, the health system’s national footprint now has more "A" grade hospitals than ever before, underscoring AdventHealth’s leadership in clinical excellence, safety and quality.

“We are immensely proud of our teams for their continued pursuit of excellence in keeping our patients safe and caring for their whole health"

"This does not happen by accident," William Scharf, MD, executive clinical director of quality and safety for AdventHealth, shared with USA Today.

“We are immensely proud of our teams for their continued pursuit of excellence in keeping our patients safe and caring for their whole health,” Dr. Scharf adds. "These grades represent not just a score, but the lives saved, the injuries prevented, and the standard of care that our patients deserve and can always expect at AdventHealth."

The latest Hospital Safety Grades also recognized AdventHealth Daytona Beach for the remarkable feat of earning straight "A's" since the inception of Leapfrog’s grading system, making it one of only 18 hospitals in the country to consecutively achieve the honor.

As Dr. Scharf shared with Becker’s Hospital Review, much of AdventHealth’s success in safety and quality can be credited to strategies that focus on strong communication between patients and their care teams, along with close collaboration across care teams to ensure a connected patient experience.

"At first glance when people hear about patient experience, they think about groundskeeping in the hospital, but patient experience is the intersection of quality and safety," Dr. Scharf said. "That's something we treasure and value very much."

For more information on AdventHealth’s performance in the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade or to view individual hospital grades and state rankings, visit HospitalSafetyGrade.org.