Published: July 31, 2012
Sparrow has earned an "A" for Patient safety in a recent score card of more than 2,600 hospitals nationwide. The report, prepared by The Leapfrog Group, grades a hospital's overall performance in keeping Patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors.
Sparrow continues to take great strides in Patient safety by investing heavily in new technology and new procedures -- through such things as electronic patient order entry and bar code matching between Patient wristbands and prescribed medications. Sparrow is also part of a two-year collaboration with other hospitals focusing on how Sparrow Caregivers can improve safety through review and analysis of past events, implementing proactive tools to recognize and correct errors, and setting quantitative outcome improvement goals.
"We are pleased to have received an "A" grade from The Leapfrog Group. This score reflects the efforts Sparrow has undertaken to fundamentally transform healthcare to provide the best care to every Patient, every time and to improve Patient safety. This report is just one of the many ways we evaluate our efforts. I'm happy to see we are on the right path," said Sherry Taunt, Vice President of Quality & Performance Improvement at Sparrow.
The Hospital Safety Scoresm is determined by analyzing national performance measures from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, as well as survey response data. Grades were calculated based on 26 scoring elements in the categories of Process/Structural Measures and Outcomes. Sparrow received an "A" grade by scoring in the top quartile of all hospitals studied.
About The Leapfrog Group
The Leapfrog Group (www.leapfroggroup.org) is a national organization using the collective leverage of large purchasers of health care to initiate breakthrough improvements in the safety, quality, and affordability of health care for Americans. The flagship Leapfrog Hospital Survey allows purchasers to structure their contracts and purchasing to reward the highest performing hospitals. The Leapfrog Group was founded in November 2000 with support from the Business Roundtable and national funders, and is now independently operated with support from its purchaser and other members.