Newswise — SEATTLE – (Oct. 31, 2016) – Virginia Mason Medical Center has again earned an “A” in the national Hospital Safety Grade program, The Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit patient safety watchdog, announced today.

Virginia Mason has received the top grade all 10 times since the program began in 2012 and is the only medical center in Seattle to achieve this. Leapfrog issues its safety grades twice a year.

“Earning straight A's in the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is a remarkable achievement and testament to a hospital’s ongoing vigilance and commitment to patient safety,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO, The Leapfrog Group.

Developed under 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. The grades are calculated by top patient safety experts, peer-reviewed, fully transparent and free to the public.

“Our passion for making medical care safer has been recognized often by outside organizations that evaluate our industry,” said Virginia Mason Chairman and CEO Gary S. Kaplan, MD. “I am proud of this latest recognition by The Leapfrog Group. It is another affirmation that teams across our organization are focused on the right work and truly making a difference for our patients everywhere.”

Visit www.hospitalsafetygrade.org to see the Leapfrog safety grades for hospitals in Seattle, the state and the nation.

Founded in 2000 by large employers and other health care purchasers, The Leapfrog Group is a national nonprofit 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.

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