Ascension St. Joseph Hospital and Ascension St. Elizabeth Hospital each earned an "A” Hospital Safety Grade from The Leapfrog Group, an independent national nonprofit focused on patient safety. Leapfrog assigns an "A," "B," "C," "D" or "F" grade to general hospitals across the country based on more than 22 performance measures reflecting accidents, errors, injuries and infections, as well as the systems and protocols hospitals have in place to prevent them.
“This recognition by Leapfrog is an acknowledgment of our dedicated caregivers and their steadfast commitment to live out our mission of delivering safe, high quality and compassionate care for all,” said Shana Crittenden, president, Ascension St. Joseph Hospital. “We are proud of our team and the exceptional care they provide for our patients, every single day.”
“We continually evaluate and strengthen our safety practices,” said Michael Bergmann, president, St. Elizabeth Hospital. “Our teams work across disciplines to prevent harm, reduce infections, and improve patient outcomes.”
Each year, Ascension establishes clinical priority goals that guide multidisciplinary teams in advancing system-wide initiatives. In striving to exceed these goals, Ascension remains dedicated to delivering the highest standards of safety, quality, and access through strengthened capabilities and processes. The successes outlined below reflect this ongoing commitment.
Leapfrog’s Hospital Safety Grade program is a national rating focused exclusively on hospital safety, preventable medical errors, infections and patient injuries. It is peer-reviewed, transparent and available to the public at no cost, with updated grades published twice annually in fall and spring. For detailed hospital grades and safety tips for patients, visitHospitalSafetyGrade.org.
As a result of the spring 2024 cyber attack, Ascension was unable to submit full datasets for many of our safety and quality measures to key stakeholders at the time, such as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Centers for Disease Control’s National Healthcare Safety Network and others. As a result, there was limited data for Leapfrog to import for determining grades. Per Leapfrog methodology, when some data are unavailable, higher weight is given to other metrics that have been reported, potentially impacting overall scores. This gap has impacted Leapfrog hospital safety grades at some of our hospitals and may continue to impact grades into calendar year 2027.
