The University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore and Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle have been named "Top Hospitals of the Decade" by The Leapfrog Group.
The awards, which recognize major achievements in reducing medical errors and other innovations in patient safety and quality, were presented Tuesday at a Washington, D.C., ceremony marking Leapfrog's 10-year anniversary.
The two hospitals are among 1,200 institutions that voluntarily participate in the annual Leapfrog Hospital Survey – a collection of national standards intended to ensure the safety and quality of hospital care. UMMC and VMMC are the only two U.S. hospitals to consistently perform in the top ranks of survey responders since Leapfrog began its Top Hospitals awards program in 2006.
Leapfrog Group Board Chairman David Knowlton, president of the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute, described the efforts of the two hospitals as "extraordinary in every sense of the word."
"The new era of healthcare reform is going to require providers, insurers, employers and others to work together as never before to improve the quality and efficiency of care," he said. "Hospitals such as the University of Maryland Medical Center and Virginia Mason Medical Center chose to blaze that trail long ago by committing themselves to change, accountability and transparency."
The Leapfrog Hospital Survey, which launched in 2001, focuses on three areas of patient safety and quality: how patients fare, which includes things like mortality for common high-risk surgeries and procedures; resources used to care for patients, measured by length of stay and readmission rates; and management practices that promote safety and quality, such as the proper staffing of intensive care units with specially trained doctors and nurses.
The Leapfrog Group is a coalition of public and private purchasers of employee health benefits founded a decade ago to work for improvements in healthcare safety, quality and affordability. Initially organized by the Business Roundtable, it is now an independent, national, not-for-profit organization.