(Lewiston, ID) St. Joseph Regional Medical Center (“St. Joseph” or “SJRMC”) received an “A” Hospital Safety Grade from The Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit group that sets standards for excellence in patient safety and care. St. Joseph Regional Medical Center was one of only six hospitals in the state of Idaho to receive the top Leapfrog grade for its Fall 2024 update.
Leapfrog assigns an “A,” “B,” “C,” “D” or “F” grade to hospitals across the country based on over 30 national performance measures reflecting errors, accidents, injuries and infections, as well as the systems hospitals have in place to prevent harm. Only 32% of the approximately 3,000 hospitals reviewed nationwide earn Leapfrog’s “A” grade.
“We are thrilled to again earn the top rating for patient safety from Leapfrog,” said Ed Freysinger, CEO of St. Joseph Regional Medical Center. “It’s an honor for our entire team who work so hard to create a culture of safety, and it is a recognition meant to affirm patients’ confidence in the safe and high-quality care they will receive at our hospital.”
The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade stands as the only hospital ratings program focused solely on preventable medical errors, infections and injuries that kill more than 500 patients a day in the United States. This program is peer-reviewed, fully transparent and free to the public. Grades are updated twice annually, in the fall and spring.
The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses up to 30 national performance measures from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Leapfrog Hospital Survey and information from other supplemental data sources. Taken together, those performance measures produce a single letter grade representing a hospital’s overall performance in keeping patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade methodology has been peer reviewed and published in the Journal of Patient Safety.
“Achieving an ‘A’ Hospital Safety Grade is a significant accomplishment for St. Joseph Regional Medical Center,” said Leah Binder, President and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “It reflects enormous dedication to your patients and their families, and your whole community should be proud. I extend my congratulations to St. Joseph Regional, its leadership, clinicians, staff and volunteers for their tireless efforts to put patients first.”
The Leapfrog honor continues a string of positive recognitions and developments at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center. In September, the hospital earned Level II Stroke Center designation by the state of Idaho’s Time Sensitive Emergency System (TSE). In July, SJRMC earned the American College of Cardiology’s NCDR Chest Pain ̶ MI Registry Platinum Performance Achievement Award for 2024 (one of only 259 hospitals nationwide to receive the honor). In December 2023, St. Joseph Regional Medical Center was named a 2024 Maternity Care Access Hospital, an inaugural designation from U.S. News & World Report that recognized the hospital’s exceptional maternity services in an area that might otherwise be a “maternity desert.” And last October, the hospital opened its new 10-bed, acute rehabilitation unit, the only inpatient rehabilitation center in the area.
“We continue to deliver high-quality care and specialty services that our community needs,” said Freysinger. “And as we continue to produce positive patient outcomes and experiences, groups like Leapfrog take note and recognize our success. I couldn’t be prouder of the St. Joseph team, who loves caring for our friends, families, and neighbors in the Lewis-Clark Valley, and deserve every accolade they get.”
To see the safety grades of St. Joseph Regional and other local hospitals, visit HospitalSafetyGrade.org and search by city/state or zip code.
