Leapfrog Group in the News

May 2002
(5/22/02) The American Hospital Association is asking the Leapfrog Group for alternatives to meeting the employer coalition’s standards for patient safety. For instance, the group wants hospitals to implement computerized physician order entry systems to improve medication management, but an average $5 million price tag makes that goal unachievable for many hospitals, according to the AHA. Click here to go to Health Data Management full-text article.

April 2002
(4/25/02) Employer and payer purchasers of health care are ratcheting up the pressure on hospitals to comply with the Leapfrog Group's initial patient safety initiatives, including use of computerized physician order entry systems. Last year, employer and payer consortiums in six regions pressed hospitals to commit to Leapfrog principals; this year, they may make purchasing decisions based on those commitments. Now, 12 new regional consortiums--nine working under the umbrella of the National Business Coalition on Health--will press the issue further.Three other consortiums outside NBCH also have joined the initiative. They include Boeing Co. and a machinist's union in Wichita, Kan.; Hallmark Inc., Sprint Inc. and Cerner Corp. in Kansas City, Mo.; and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Group Insurance Commission. Click here to go to Health Data Management full-text article or click here to go to Leapfrog full-text article.

January 2002
(1/30/02) The most critical issue facing U.S. hospitals is how they will deploy new processes and information technology to improve patient safety, say CEOs of some of the nation’s largest health care I.T. companies. Employers will pull their business from hospitals that do not significantly reduce medical errors and document that reduction, a panel of vendor CEOs told an audience at the 2002 HIMSS Conference in Atlanta. "The recent announcement from the Leapfrog Group makes that abundantly clear," says Lawrence English, CEO of QuadraMed Corp., San Rafael, Calif. Click here to go to Health Data Management full-text article.

(1/21/02) The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine has launched the nation's first academic department of critical-care medicine, meant to address a shortage of intensivists that is projected to worsen through 2030. The school's announcement is particularly significant in light of a push by the Leapfrog Group to make the use of such specially trained physicians standard practice in ICUs nationwide. Right now, the industry falls short of Leapfrog's standard. Only about 10% of 241 hospitals pa rticipating in a recently released Leapfrog survey had intensivists overseeing ICU care at least eight hours a day. According to the Society of Critical Care Medicine, Des Plaines, Ill., there are about 6,000 physicians across the nation who have certificates in intensive care through one of four primary specialties, while at least three times that number would be necessary to properly staff all U.S. ICUs. Click here to go to Modern Healthcare full-text article.

(1/17/02) A Leapfrog Group patient safety survey found that only 3.3 percent of hospitals currently use computerized prescription order entry, a practice that many health care experts say would significantly reduce preventable medical errors The employer organization, which surveyed 241 urban hospitals in California, Minnesota and eastern Tennessee, as well as facilities in Atlanta, St. Louis and in the Seattle area, also found that only 10 percent of hospitals have fully implemented the practice of staffing intensive care units with intensivists. Thirty percent of the hospitals surveyed said they planned to implement computerized prescription order entry by 2004, and 18 percent said they plan to deploy intensivists in ICUs by that date. Click here to go to Business Insurance/PND News full-text article.

(1/17/02) Leapfrog Group Hospital Survey -- Click here for information that hospitals provided directly to The Leapfrog Group about some of their efforts to reduce preventable medical mistakes; information that consumers can use when choosing a hospital. The survey that all hospitals across the country were asked to fill out focuses on three patient safety practices. The Leapfrog Group chose these specific practices because of scientific evidence that each has significant potential to save lives by affecting factors that influence preventable medical mistakes or bad outcomes. At this point, very few hospitals have fully implemented the three recommended practices. However, all hospitals working toward implementing these practices should be commended. The majority of the information is for hospitals in the following regions: Atlanta, Georgia; California; East Tennessee; Minnesota; Seattle/Tacoma/Everett, Washington; and, St. Louis, Missouri. We intend to expand our outreach efforts across the rest of the nation in the near future. Please note that the three recommended safety practices are most applicable to urban area hospitals; therefore we did not ask rural hospitals to complete the survey. However, many rural hospitals are also engaged in a variety of efforts to reduce preventable medical mistakes.

December 2001
(12/14/01) Data to help employers identify safest hospitals -- Georgia employers may soon be willing to offer a financial carrot to hospitals that comply with certain safety standards. The Georgia Healthcare Leadership Council, in partnership with The Leapfrog Group, has steadily been collecting patient safety data from local hospitals. That data, which details how well hospitals adhere to medical error prevention guidelines laid out by LeapFrog, is expected to be handed over to employers by January. Click here to go to report links/PDF files.

(12/6/01) The Leapfrog Group and First Consulting Group (FCG), have today unveiled a first-of-its-kind guide to the current CPOE system vendor marketplace and the clinical decision support tools that hospitals need as part of CPOE to improve patient safety and quality. In addition to shedding light on the currently available CPOE products, the guide provides hospitals with critical advice about organizing their effort and what to consider in selecting the right CPOE solution. The Leapfrog Group recommends that hospitals implement CPOE systems able to detect and respond to order-related medication errors. Click here for PDF of Leapfrog news release. Click here to go to report links/PDF files.

November 2001
(11/12/01) According to the American Hospital Association News, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has accepted an invitation by The Leapfrog Group, a Business Roundtable-sponsored program dedicated to improving patient safety, to become a formal partner. Prior to the formal agreement, JCAHO and the Leapfrog Group announced plans to pursue the identification of a specific set of intensive care unit-related measures. Formal partner status means the Leapfrog Group will seek JCAHO's advice and may partner with JCAHO on future initiatives.

October 2001
Four big New York companies will announce a $2 million incentive program to encourage hospitals in the state to improve patient safety. Click here to gain access to New York Times article.

Leapfrog to publish hospitals’ safety capabilities. Click here to read Modern Healthcare news brief.

August 2001
On August 14th, Leapfrog Group and Health Grades announce partnership agreement to analyze and report Hospital Patient-Safety Survey results of Business Roundtable sponsored Group. Click here to read full-text of HealthGrades.com press release.

July 2001
As of July 12th, 525 hospitals in six regions around the country have been invited to complete a groundbreaking patient safety survey by The Business Roundtable’s Leapfrog Group, in collaboration with The MEDSTAT Group, a Thomson Company. Click here to read full-text of MedStat.com press release. Click here for follow-up press release.

About Leapfrog Group: Leapfrog is a leading group of Fortune 500 companies, and other large healthcare purchasers holding healthcare providers accountable for performance. For more information see: www.leapfroggroup.org.