Each day approximately 25 patients in U.S. hospitals contract a Healthcare-Associated Infection (HAI), and medication errors in hospitals can occur in up to 70% of patients at the time of hospital admission or discharge, resulting in an estimated 7,000 deaths annually. HAIs and medication errors are common and can have serious consequences, yet are largely preventable for hospitalized patients.

The Greater Philadelphia Business Coalition on Health (GPBCH), Regional Leader for The Leapfrog Group, continues to drive awareness on the importance of hospital transparency and patient safety by distributing educational materials to help employers and healthcare stakeholders understand how to evaluate data on patient safety, choose the best care, and promote value-based healthcare. GPBCH recently issued two action briefs, Healthcare-Associated Infections and Medication Safety in the Hospital. These briefs were designed to inform employer purchasers and help consumers of healthcare identify higher performing hospitals in the region based on data from the Leapfrog Survey and Hospital Safety Grades. Here is what you can do with these resources:

• Use GPBCH action briefs to educate your employees about Medication Safety, Healthcare-Associated Infections and how to stay safe in the hospital.
• Visit http://www.leapfroggroup.org/ and https://www.hospitalsafetygrade.org to see how your in-network hospitals perform on quality and patient safety measures.
• Discuss these findings (particularly C and D grades) with hospital leaders and ask what they are doing to drive improvement.
• Urge hospitals that do not participate in the Leapfrog Hospital Survey to do so.

Transparency is vital to patient safety and it helps keep hospitals accountable. GPBCH thanks those hospitals that participate in the annual Leapfrog Hospital Survey and we applaud hospitals willing to report and making progress on these performance measures.
Click here to view the Medication Safety Brief.
Click here to view the Healthcare-Associated Infection Brief.
To learn about Leapfrog activities in the region, please contact Tanika Smith at tsmith@gpbch.org.