Modern Healthcare recently referred to The Leapfrog Group as an engine pulling the industry down the right quality-of-care track, but noted that not nearly enough cars are in line behind us.[1] We've been using the Leapfrog Hospital Survey “engine” to collaborate and agitate for improved care since 2000. This engine picks up speed in 2008 with changes important to physicians who are known to have a significant impact on hospital quality.[2]
Measuring performance is complex. There are as many critics as advocates. Leapfrog weighs positive and critical feedback each year to improve the Survey as a tool for helping providers, patients, and families understand what fuels the engine of safer care. Though research on the impact of public reporting on quality has yielded mixed results, Health Affairs[3] and New England Journal of Medicine[4] studies have found strong evidence that publicizing performance information stimulates improvement.
This year, Leapfrog refined its quality measures – or “Leaps” – that have transformed how physicians and hospitals examine quality.
Improvements to the 2008 Survey include:
Testing how well a hospital's computerized physician order entry system works;
Extending the ICU staffing Leap to neuro ICUs;
Introducing resource utilization measures – a first in national public quality reporting;
Adding measures for acute myocardial infarction and pneumonia; and
Adding measures on 2 hospital-acquired conditions – pressure ulcers and injuries.
More detailed information is available at www.leapfroggroup.org.
Our collaboration with hospitals in designing the Leapfrog Hospital Survey makes it easier for physician and hospital leaders to support it and continue moving our healthcare system down the track toward safer healthcare – narrowing the gap between what is and what can be. The Leapfrog Group calls on physicians to ensure that their affiliated hospitals are on board and participate in the Leapfrog Hospital Survey.
That is my opinion. I'm Leah Binder, CEO of The Leapfrog Group.
Footnotes
Reader Comments on: The Role of Leapfrog in Driving Quality Forward See reader comments on this article and provide your own.
Readers are encouraged to respond to the author at LBinder@Leapfroggroup.org or to George Lundberg, MD, Editor in Chief of The Medscape Journal of Medicine, for the editor's eyes only or for possible publication as an actual Letter in the Medscape Journal via email: glundberg@medscape.net
References
- 1.Sloane T. Modern Healthcare. A train that hasn't left the station: studies give lie to notion that healthcare is well on the way toward higher quality. 2007;37:22. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2.Meyer JA, Carroll SS, Kutyla T, et al. Hospital quality: ingredients for success – overview and lessons learned. The Commonwealth Fund. July 2004.
- 3.Hibbard JH, Stockard J, Tusler M. Does publicizing hospital performance stimulate quality improvement efforts. Health Aff (Millwood) 2003;22:84–94. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.22.2.84. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 4.Lindenauer PK, Remus D, Roman S, et al. Public reporting and pay for performance in hospital quality improvement. N Engl J Med. 2007;356:486–496. doi: 10.1056/NEJMsa064964. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
