Milestone: OMC earns Leapfrog ‘A’ for safety, quality

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, July 1, 2020

Olympic Medical Center was awarded an “A” grade in the spring 2020 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, a national distinction recognizing the organization’s achievements providing safer health care, OMC representatives said in late May. The Leapfrog Group is an independent national organization that helps to drive healthcare safety and quality improvement through transparency.

The Safety Grade is a letter grade assigned to all general hospitals across the country and updated every six months, assessing how well the hospital prevents medical errors and other harms to patients.

“An ‘A’ grade from the Leapfrog Group, along with other accolades we’ve received so far in 2020, reflects the great people who work for Olympic Medical Center,” OMC chief executive officer Eric Lewis said. “Olympic Medical Center staff and providers are doing amazing things for our patients.”

In January, Medicare’s Hospital Compare gave Olympic Medical Center Five-Stars. Only 407 hospitals out of 4,000 rated received this rating.

In February, Olympic Medical Center was named for the fifth year in a row as a Top 100 Rural & Community Hospital; one of only two Washington state hospitals that made the list.

“As the nation copes with a challenging pandemic, our gratitude extends to hospital leadership and health care workers everywhere for their tremendous dedication,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group.

“We hope this ‘A’ helps to thank people who work and volunteer for Olympic Medical Center,” Binder said. “They are role models in putting patients first, and their service has been extraordinary in our country’s time of need.”

Developed under the guidance of a national Expert Panel, the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses up to 28 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign grades to more than 2,600 U.S. acute-care hospitals twice per year. The Hospital Safety Grade’s methodology is peer-reviewed and fully transparent, and the results are free to the public.

Hospital grade details and patient tips for staying safe in the hospital can be found at hospitalsafetygrade.org.

Founded in 2000 by large employers and other purchasers, The Leapfrog Group is a national nonprofit organization driving a movement for giant leaps forward in the quality and safety of American health care. The flagship Leapfrog Hospital Survey and new Leapfrog Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) Survey collect and transparently report hospital and ASC performance, empowering purchasers to find the highest-value care and giving consumers the lifesaving information they need to make informed decisions.

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, Leapfrog’s other main initiative, assigns letter grades to hospitals based on their record of patient safety, helping consumers protect themselves and their families from errors, injuries, accidents and infections.