The patient safety record of US hospitals improved over the past decade, according to the 10th annual report from the Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit organization focused on healthcare safety and quality.
For five outcome measures, the safety improvements saved an estimated 16,000 lives during the 10-year period, the report said. These included two "never" events that both declined by approximately 25%: incidents of falls and trauma, and incidents of objects unintentionally left in a body after surgery.
There were also decreases in three healthcare-associated infections, including:
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which decreased by 22%
Central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI), which fell by 43%
Clostridioides difficile infection (C Diff), which declined by 8%
The patient safety record of US hospitals improved over the past decade, according to an annual report from the nonprofit The Leapfrog Group.
"Never in history have we seen across-the-board improvement in patient safety until this last decade, coinciding with the history of the [Leapfrog] Hospital Safety Grade," said Leah Binder, president and CEO of the Leapfrog Group, in a news release. "We salute hospitals for this milestone and encourage them to accelerate their hard work saving patient lives."
During the past decade, the report noted, hospitals have widely adopted technology and staffing strategies that can protect patients from preventable harm and death. Leapfrog cited a nearly sevenfold increase in the adoption of computerized provider order entry, which can reduce medication errors by more than 40%.
