Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast has once again been awarded the highest grade on The Leapfrog Group’s Hospital Safety Grade for the Fall 2021. The national designation and top grade recognizes the hospital’s efforts in protecting patients from harm and meeting the highest safety standards.

The Leapfrog Group is a national organization committed to improving health care quality and safety for consumers and purchasers. 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, infections and other harms among patients in their care. Leapfrog released its latest bi-annual safety grades on May 12.

“I am extremely proud of our physicians, clinical and support teams at Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast,” said Henry Stovall, regional president of Ascension Sacred Heart. “The last two years with the pandemic have been very challenging for our team, but this recognition provides further evidence that we continue to provide high-quality, compassionate care in the safest possible setting for anyone who needs it.”

Leapfrog assigns a letter grade to nearly 3,000 U.S. general hospitals based on over 30 measures of patient safety. Those include safety data on hand hygiene, risk mitigation, and discharge communication, as well as outcome measures such as falls, pressure ulcers, and infections. Leapfrog provides the only hospital ratings program based exclusively on hospitals’ prevention of medical errors and other harms to patients in their care.

The latest grades “continue to show significant variation in safety performance across U.S. hospitals,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of the Leapfrog Group.  “This variability is a constant reminder that the public must have access to information on which hospitals are safer so patients can make the best decision for themselves and their loved ones.”

To learn more about the Hospital Safety Grades, visit https://www.hospitalsafetygrade.org/.

Ascension is a faith-based healthcare organization dedicated to transformation through innovation across the continuum of care. As one of the leading non-profit and Catholic health systems in the U.S., Ascension is committed to delivering compassionate, personalized care to all, with special attention to persons living in poverty and those most vulnerable. In FY2020, Ascension provided $2.4 billion in care of persons living in poverty and other community benefit programs. Ascension includes more than 150,000 associates and 40,000 aligned providers. The national health system operates more than 2,600 sites of care – including 143 hospitals and more than 40 senior living facilities – in 19 states and the District of Columbia, while providing a variety of services including clinical and network services, venture capital investing, investment management, biomedical engineering, facilities management, risk management, and contracting through Ascension’s own group purchasing organization. Visit www.ascension.org.

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