Safety Score App – Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade Review

This new app is a precedent-breaking rip in the curtain of secrecy and opacity that has long prevented the average American from being able to substantively compare what our hospitals do, not just what they advertise. Everyone should download and use this tool, if for no other reason than to begin the process of taking more personal responsibility for choosing hospitals and doctors based on the best clinical outcomes, not who claims to have won the most awards. There will be angry criticism from some quarters that Leapfrog's statistical analysis either emphasizes some areas too much or too little, and any statistical comparison can be improved with time. But those institutions who react to a less than stellar score by attacking the app or the provider are missing the point: American healthcare will never be a safe system until every American has a reliable way of knowing who is really providing the best care and the smallest number of unnecessary injuries and deaths, and who is merely buying billboard ads proclaiming their quality. We have thousands of great hospitals, but everyone can improve, and that begins by a willingness to face less than stellar reviews and comparisons with humility and rededication to patient safety and quality outcomes. John J. Nance Author, "Why Hospitals Should Fly" and "Charting the Course."
Review by PatientSafetyAuthor on Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade.