Slidell Memorial Hospital and Ochsner Medical Center – North Shore were awarded an “A” from The Leapfrog Group’s Fall 2018 Hospital Safety Grade, announced SMH and Ochsner – North Shore Chief Executive Officer Kerry Tirman. This designation recognizes efforts in protecting patients from harm and meeting the highest safety standards in the United States.
The Leapfrog Group is a national organization committed to improving healthcare 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, infections, and other harms among patients in their care.
“Leapfrog’s Hospital Safety Grades recognize hospitals that focus on advancing patient safety. This ranking provides an important resource for patients, and a benchmark for hospitals, to determine how care at one hospital compares to others in a region,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “Hospitals that earn an A Hospital Safety Grade deserve to be recognized for their efforts in preventing medical harm and errors.”
“Achieving an ‘A’ score from Leapfrog is an honor. Doing so consistently requires dedication and a commitment to excellence,” said Tirman. “We are very proud of our team for being among an elite group of healthcare providers in the nation.”
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. hospitals twice per year. The Hospital Safety Grade’s methodology is peer-reviewed and fully transparent, and the results are free to the public.
“This is another example of how, together, SMH and Ochsner are providing a quality patient experience in east St. Tammany Parish,” said John Herman, CEO, Ochsner North Shore Region. “This high level of recognition could not happen without the continued focus of our physicians, nurses and staff on quality healthcare and patient safety.”