For the second time this year, all five Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare adult hospitals received an “A” grade in patient safety from The Leapfrog Group, an independent national watchdog organization committed to healthcare quality and safety. Leapfrog does not provide report cards for children’s hospitals. Once again, Methodist is the only health system in the area to earn the highest possible grade.
Methodist Olive Branch Hospital is among the system facilities included in the ratings.
“Our primary focus is to provide our patients with outstanding care, and our “A” grades solidify our unrelenting promise to deliver the safest and highest quality care to our patients,” said MLH President and CEO Michael Ugwueke. “As part of our commitment to transparency and continuous improvement, the grades reflect our strong performance on national Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) measures and our voluntarily submitted safety surveys to Leapfrog.”
Leapfrog assigns a letter grade to more than 2,900 U.S. acute-care hospitals across the country based on over thirty national performance measures. The single letter grade represents a hospital’s overall performance in patient experience and keeping patients safe while providing high quality care.
“As on a school report card, these grades exemplify our eagerness to learn and improve while collectively working together to pursue the highest level of excellence in patient care,” added Ugwueke. “Our steadfast focus and attention to detail directly correlate to better health outcomes for our patients.”
The Leapfrog grading system is peer-reviewed and fully transparent, and the results are free to the public.
Based in Memphis, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare has been caring for patients and families regardless of ability to pay for more than 100 years. MLH has grown from one hospital into a comprehensive healthcare system with 13,000 associates supporting six hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, outpatient facilities, hospice residence and physician practices serving communities across the Mid-South.
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 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade 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.
