Wake Forest Baptist Earns an “A” for Patient Safety

June 15, 2012

Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center earned an “A” in hospital safety from The Leapfrog Group, an independent national nonprofit organization that alerts America’s heath industry that big leaps in health care safety, quality and customer value will be recognized and rewarded.

The Leapfrog Hospital Survey compares hospital’s performance on the national standards of safety, quality, and efficiency that are most relevant to consumers and purchasers of care. The Hospital Safety Score was calculated under the guidance of The Leapfrog Group’s Blue Ribbon Expert Panel using publicly available data on patient injuries, medical and medication errors and infections. U.S. hospitals were assigned an A, B, C, D or F for their safety.

“At our medical center, every single employee is responsible and held accountable for patient safety,” said Thomas Sibert, M.D., MBA, president and COO, Wake Forest Baptist Health. “When patients need hospitalization, they place their trust in us. They deserve and expect to receive the safest care possible and we continually strive to deliver and improve on that promise.”

Calculated under the guidance of The Leapfrog Group’s nine-member expert panel, the Hospital Safety Score uses 26 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to produce a single score representing a hospital’s overall capacity to keep patients safe from infections, injuries, medical and medication errors. The panel includes some of the nation’s top safety experts from Harvard, Johns Hopkins and Stanford.

To see Wake Forest Baptist’s scores as they compare nationally and locally, visit www.hospitalsafetyscore.org, the Hospital Safety Score web site, which also provides information on how the public can protect themselves and loved ones during a hospital stay.

Media Relations

Mac Ingraham: mingraha@wakehealth.edu, 336-716-3487