NorthShore Hospitals Nationally Recognized with 'A' Ratings in Latest Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades

4/30/2020 – NorthShore University HealthSystem (NorthShore) hospitals have received “A” grades for Spring 2020 from The Leapfrog Group, a national organization that focuses on quality and safety in American health care. NorthShore Evanston, Glenbrook, Highland Park and Swedish Hospitals all received A’s.

“During these unprecedented times, we are pleased to be recognized for our ongoing attention to improving key clinical outcomes and implementing key safety practices across our system for our patients,” said Lakshmi Halasyamani, MD, Chief Quality and Transformation Officer at NorthShore. “As we face new challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, NorthShore remains committed to supporting our teams to deliver outstanding patient care.”

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses up to 28 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign grades to more than 2,600 U.S. acute-care hospitals twice per year. The Safety Grade assigns an ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’ or ‘F’ grade to hospitals across the country based on their performance in preventing medical errors, injuries, accidents, infections and other harm to patients in their care..

“The national recognition of an ‘A’ Safety Grade is a visible sign of our daily commitment to providing the community with safe care and excellent patient outcomes,” said Bruce McNulty, Chief Medical Officer at Swedish. “Our entire organization is proud to have received this recognition, because it’s all about what’s best for our communities and this grade is a valuable indicator for patients looking for a safe place to receive care.”

Because Leapfrog only assigns grades to acute-care hospitals, Skokie Hospital was not included in the grading process because of its specialty hospital status as NorthShore Orthopaedic & Spine Institute.

“As the nation copes with a challenging pandemic, our gratitude extends to hospital leadership and health care workers everywhere for their tremendous dedication,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “We hope this ‘A’ helps to thank the people who work and volunteer for the NorthShore system. They are role models in putting patients first, and their service has been extraordinary in our country’s time of need.”

The Hospital Safety Grade’s methodology is peer-reviewed and fully transparent, and the results are free to the public. Spring 2020 safety grades can be found at HospitalSafetyGrade.org.