by
Bill Ligas | Apr 25, 2016
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Swedish Covenant Hospital has been recognized once again for its dedication to patient safety by receiving another ‘A’ grade in the Spring 2016
Hospital Safety Scores. The Score rates how well hospitals protect patients from preventable medical errors, injuries and infections within the hospital. The hospital has received ‘A’ Safety Scores in every rating period since the Score’s launch by The Leapfrog Group in June 2012.
“This national recognition of an ‘A’ Safety Score is a visible sign to the city of Chicago of our daily commitment to providing them with safe care and excellent patient outcomes,” said Janis Rueping, Swedish Covenant Hospital’s Vice President of Quality Improvement and Risk Management. “Our entire Swedish Covenant Hospital family is proud to have received this recognition, because it’s all about what’s best for our patients.”
An A grade is a valuable indicator for patients looking for a safe place to receive care. The Hospital Safety Score is a standard rating for patient safety, compiled under the guidance of the nation’s leading patient safety experts and administered by The Leapfrog Group, a national, independent nonprofit consortium of Fortune 500 companies and other large private and public health care purchasers, sponsored by the Business Roundtable, that work together to drive improvements in patient safety.
Developed under the guidance of Leapfrog’s Blue Ribbon Expert Panel, this spring’s Hospital Safety Score used 30 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to produce a single A, B, C, D or F score, representing a hospital’s overall capacity to keep patients safe from preventable harm. More than 2,500 U.S. general hospitals were assigned scores in April 2016, with only 798 hospitals receiving an A grade.
Swedish Covenant Hospital in one of only six hospitals in Chicago to receive an A grade in the April 2016 report, and one of only four Chicago hospitals to have earned Straight ‘A’s for every rating period since 2012.
The Hospital Safety Score makes its data analysis and methodology available to the public on its website. Patients can also review their hospital’s past safety performance alongside its current grade on the Hospital Safety Score site, allowing them to determine which local hospitals have the best track record in patient safety and which have demonstrated consistent improvement.
To see Swedish Covenant Hospital’s current and past scores, and to access customer-friendly tips for patients and loved ones visiting the hospital, visit
hospitalsafetyscore.org.
Swedish Covenant Hospital was recently featured in an article on Crain's about the safest hospitals in Chicago following this national designation. Read the full article on
their site.