Newswise —

The Leapfrog Group, a leading national nonprofit watchdog on hospital quality and safety, recently announced that Virginia Mason has once again received an “A” for patient safety in the new Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades.

Virginia Mason has earned straight A’s since the inception of the Safety Grade program in 2012. It is one of only 63 hospitals nationwide – and the only one in Seattle – to achieve this.

“The latest recognition by the Leapfrog Group again affirms that our teams are focused on the right work and making a difference in the lives of our patients,” said Virginia Mason Chairman and CEO Gary S. Kaplan, MD.

Patients and their families regularly participate alongside Virginia Mason team members in the organization’s continuous-improvement workshops that focus on further improving quality, safety and the patient experience.

“We view patients and their families as our partners as we design health care processes based on their feedback and needs,” Dr. Kaplan said. “It’s exciting to imagine where this important work will take us in the years ahead.”

“Straight ‘A’ hospitals are a rare breed. Not only do they achieve the highest national standards for safety, but they consistently maintain that level of excellence,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO, The Leapfrog Group. “That means that they put the well-being of their patients first, every hour of every day, year after year. We are proud to recognize that tireless commitment.”

Developed with the guidance of an expert panel, the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses 30 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign A, B, C, D and F grades to more than 2,600 U.S. hospitals twice per year. It is calculated by top patient safety experts, peer-reviewed, fully transparent and free to the public. Hospitals do not pay to be evaluated by Leapfrog nor can they opt out of the process.

See Leapfrog’s full report at hospitalsafetygrade.org

Founded in 2000 by large employers and other purchasers, The Leapfrog Group is a national non-profit organization driving a movement for giant leaps forward in the quality and safety of American health care. The flagship Leapfrog Hospital Survey collects and transparently reports hospital performance, empowering purchasers to find the highest-value care and giving consumers the lifesaving information they need to make informed decisions. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, Leapfrog’s other main initiative, assigns letter grades to hospitals based on their record of patient safety, helping consumers protect themselves and their families from errors, injuries, accidents, and infections.

About Virginia Mason Health System Virginia Mason, founded in 1920, is a nonprofit regional health care system based in Seattle that serves the Pacific Northwest. In the Puget Sound region, the system includes 336-bed Virginia Mason Hospital; a primary and specialty care group practice of more than 500 physicians; regional medical centers in Seattle, Bainbridge Island, Bellevue, Federal Way, Kirkland, Issaquah and Lynnwood; Bailey-Boushay House, the first skilled-nursing and outpatient chronic care management program in the United States designed and built specifically to meet the needs of people with HIV/AIDS; Benaroya Research Institute, which is internationally recognized for autoimmune disease research; and Virginia Mason Institute, which trains health care professionals and others from around the world in the Virginia Mason Production System, an innovative management methodology for continually improving quality, safety and efficiency. Virginia Mason online: VirginiaMason.org

Virginia Mason Health System also includes Virginia Mason Memorial, a 226-bed hospital serving the Yakima Valley in central Washington since 1950. Memorial online: YakimaMemorial.org