Four of Scripps Health's hospital campuses — Scripps Green Hospital, Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas, Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla and Scripps Mercy Hospital Chula Vista — have received “A” grades for patient safety from The Leapfrog Group, an independent national watchdog organization that issues the ratings twice a year.
“Patient care is always our top priority, and these fall 2023 grades are a direct result of that focus,” said Ghazala Sharieff, MD, MBA, Scripps corporate senior vice president, chief medical and operations officer, acute care.
Only 30% of the 3,000 general hospitals in the United States evaluated by the watchdog organization received “A” grades during this fall 2023 round of ratings. In California, only 10% of hospitals received the top grade.
The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is the only hospital ratings program based exclusively on hospital records of patient safety. Developed under the guidance of a blue-ribbon national expert panel, the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses more than 30 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign A, B, C, D and F grades to hospitals across the country twice a year. The report is calculated by top patient safety experts, peer-reviewed, fully transparent and free to the public.
The new grades are the first to reflect hospital performance post-pandemic. Nationally, hospitals significantly reduced three HAIs—Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) and catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI)—after CLABSI, MRSA and CAUTI reached a 5-year high during the pandemic. In the fall 2022 Safety Grade cycle, hospitals experienced a 35% increase in the average standard infection ratios (SIRs) of CLABSI and MRSA from pre-pandemic levels as well as a 20% increase in CAUTI.
The Leapfrog grades are the latest of several national honors bestowed upon Scripps hospitals in recent months. In August, U.S. News & World Report named Scripps among the nation’s best in five specialties in the magazine’s annual “Best Hospitals” list. And in April, Fortune magazine named Scripps among the top employers in the nation for the 15th time.