Houston Business Coalition on Health Launches Report Card to Help Consumers and Employers Find the Region’s Safest Hospitals

HOUSTON – May 3, 2023 – The Houston Business Coalition on Health (HBCH), a nonprofit with a mission to improve the cost, quality, and consumer experience in Houston’s healthcare delivery system, launched the Houston Region Hospital Report Card to help patients find the safest hospitals when seeking care and employers when contracting hospital networks. The online resource provides a dashboard view of a hospital’s current Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade also released today by The Leapfrog Group. Of the 46 hospitals in the area that were scored, 15 earned an A, 11 a B, 17 a C, one a D, and two an F grade.

HBCH serves as the Regional Leader in Houston for The Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit representing hundreds of the nation’s most influential employers and purchasers of healthcare. General hospitals earn a safety grade based on more than 30 national performance measures reflecting how well the organization protects patients from medical errors, accidents, injuries, and infections. The better the safety grade, the less the likelihood a severe event from a hospital stay.

HBCH commends the following hospitals that achieved a spring grade of A and fully completed the 2022 survey:

• HCA Houston Healthcare Conroe
• HCA Houston Healthcare Medical Center
• HCA Houston Healthcare Southeast
• Houston Methodist Hospital (Medical Center)

Alarmingly, the spring 2023 survey found that the average risk of the three most harmful healthcare-associated infections spiked to a 5-year high in hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“With the increase in hospital infections we know that Houston hospitals have recommitted to patient safety and we must reinforce the critical importance of that work,” said Chris Skisak, PhD, HBCH executive director. “There is ample evidence that hospitals that fully complete the survey have less risk of a patient experiencing an unnecessary and harmful event. We encourage employers and patients to use Report Card when selecting hospitals and to request that hospitals fully complete The Leapfrog Group 2023 survey.”

The 2023 Leapfrog Hospital Survey is open for hospitals to complete through November.

Houston Region Hospital Report Card

The Houston Region Hospital Report Card was developed in partnership with The Leapfrog Group. In addition to the Hospital Safety Grades for each hospital, the dashboard also highlights the achievement status for 12 of the 44 standards from the annual Leapfrog Hospital Survey. These 12 standards were chosen for the Houston Report Card as they reflect key performance areas most indicative of a hospital’s likelihood of preventing harm including the use of computerized physician order entry and intensive care unit staffing, prevention of never events, and hospital acquired infections – the number one cause of death and serious harm in hospitals.

About The Leapfrog Group

Founded in 2000 by large employers and other purchasers, The Leapfrog Group is a national nonprofit organization driving a movement for giant leaps for patient safety. 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. For more, follow on Twitter and Facebook, and sign up for the newsletter.

About Houston Business Coalition on Health

The non-profit Houston Business Coalition on Health is the leading resource for Houston employers and their health services providers dedicated to providing health benefits at a sustainable cost while improving the quality and employee experience of their delivery through effective benefits design. With 60 members, HBCH represents approximately 500,000 local and more than 1 million national employer-sponsored lives. HBCH a member of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions. For additional information visit our website houstonbch.org and follow on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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