LeapfrogGroup.org reports on the safety and quality of hospitals and outpatient surgery centers.
The Leapfrog Group (Leapfrog), a nonprofit organization formed by a group of large employers that offer health benefits, publishes the website. A panel of named experts developed the website’s rating system, which is based on information facilities provide in response to a survey. Leapfrog describes its procedures for verifying the accuracy of this self-reported data. Some hospitals decline to report some or all types of data. On a different website, HospitalSafetyGrade.org, the group publishes safety scores based on publicly available information.
Tips for use:
– From the website’s home page find a facility by name, location or procedure, then scroll to its ratings. Many ratings depend on whether a hospital has certain policies, procedures and staff in place rather than on patient outcomes.
– Hospital performance scores for controlling infections depend on whether the hospital did better than expected based on a standardized infection ratio. For this reason, the hospital with the lowest actual rate of infections may not receive the best mark for performance on infections.
– The Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ) notes that the fees hospitals pay rating organizations to use their rankings and awards for marketing may affect the way the organizations design their programs.
Reviewed January 2025