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59 QUALITY IMPROVEMENT & MEASUREMENT Leapfrog's Spring Safety Grades Show Improvement: 5 Things to Know By Heather Punke T he Leapfrog Group released its spring 2017 Hospital Safety Grades in April, assigning A through F letter grades to 2,639 hospitals based on 30 evi- dence-based patient safety measures. Here are five things to know about this spring's scores. 1. Leapfrog used the same methodology it established in spring 2016 for this update. e group uses publicly report- ed data as well as data from the Leapfrog Hospital Survey to grade hospitals. Grades incorporate process and structural measures as well as outcome measures, like pressure ulcers, surgical-site infections and Clostridium difficile infections, among others. 2. Hospitals need to have enough safety data available to receive a letter grade. If a hospital is missing more than nine process measures or more than five outcome measures, it is not graded. is spring, 2,639 hospitals received a grade, up from the fall, when 2,633 hospitals were graded. 3. More hospitals earned above C grades and fewer earned Fs this spring compared to the fall 2016 grades. See the breakdown below. • 823 earned an A (down from 844 in the fall) • 706 earned a B (up from 658 in the fall) • 933 earned a C (down from 954 in the fall) • 167 earned a D (up from 157 in the fall) • 10 earned an F (down from 20 in the fall) 4. Leapfrog has been grading hospitals since 2012, and 64 hospitals have earned an A grade on every scoring update since its inception. 5. While more hospitals are earning higher grades, Leap- frog President and CEO Leah Binder says more progress toward safe care is needed. "When we launched the Leap- frog Hospital Safety Grade in 2012, our goal was to alert consumers to the hazards involved in a hospital stay and help them choose the safest option. We also hoped to gal- vanize hospitals to make safety the first priority day in and day out," she said. "So far, we've been pleased with the in- crease in public awareness and hospitals' commitment to solving this terrible problem. But we need to accelerate the pace of change, because too many people are still getting harmed or killed." n 5 Things to Know About Healthgrades' 2017 Patient Experience and Patient Safety Awards By Brian Zimmerman H ealthgrades — a leading online resource for information on hospitals and physicians — announced the recipients of the Healthgrades 2017 Outstanding Patient Experience Award and Healthgrades 2017 Patient Safety Excellence Award in April. Here are five things to know. 1. For 2017, Healthgrades recognized 443 hospitals with its award for outstanding patient experience, representing the top 15 per- cent of hospitals nationwide for patient experience for 2017. 2. To determine patient experience award recipients, Health- grades examined patient experience scores from 3,489 hos- pitals that submitted at least 100 patient experience surveys to CMS for patients admitted between April 2015 and March 2016. 3. For 2017, Healthgrades recognized 460 hospitals with its pa- tient safety excellence award, representing the top 10 percent of hospitals in the nation for patient safety. 4. To determine patient safety award recipients, Healthgrades an- alyzed data compiled in Medicare Provider Analysis and Review database and software from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. 5. If all hospitals performed at the same level of those awarded for patient safety excellence, 134,568 patient safety events could have been avoided. n 24 TH ANNUAL MEETING: The Business & Operations of ASCs October 26-28, 2017 | Swissotel | Chicago, Illinois 190 SPEAKERS, INCLUDING 137+ SPEAKERS DIRECTLY FROM SURGERY CENTERS The Best Business-Focused, Strategic Discussions in the ASC Industry with a Special AEU Credit Track Register here at www.beckersasc.com/annual-ambulatory-surgery- centers-conference/ or call 800-417-2035 or email Jessica Cole, jcole@ beckershealthcare.com or Scott Becker, sbecker@beckershealthcare.com KEYNOTES BY Bill Walton, BECKER'S ASC REVIEW Alexa von Tobel, Founder and CEO of