Highlighting its nationally recognized achievements in patient safety and quality, Sarah Bush Lincoln was named a Top Rural Hospital nationally by The Leapfrog Group. This prestigious recognition ranks Sarah Bush Lincoln’s safety and quality performance better than the top 6 percent of hospitals in the nation.
Announced today, the Leapfrog Top Hospital award is one of the most prestigious honors a US hospital can receive. The Top Rural Hospital designation is awarded by The Leapfrog Group, a national watchdog organization of employers and other purchasers focused on health care safety and quality. Only one other Illinois hospital earned this honor.
Erica Mobley, Leapfrog vice president of administration, explained in the Chicago Tribune, “These are really hospitals that have demonstrated exceptional, stellar performance. It’s not always necessarily the big-name, brand hospitals that are excelling at all these metrics.”
Sarah Bush Lincoln President and CEO Jerry Esker said “It is exciting to be named one of the best hospitals in nation. This prestigious award is widely acknowledged as one of the most competitive honors American hospitals can receive.”
Esker added, “Our first priority is the health and safety of all our patients. We are always looking for ways to ensure our community receives excellent care, and we have implemented several improvements in a greater effort to provide the best care possible. Everyone who works in our health system plays a role in our patients’ safe care. This Top Rural Hospital designation is a credit to their commitment to our community’s health.”
The Top Rural Hospital Award comes following the Sarah Bush Lincoln’s “A” Hospital Safety Grade, also from The Leapfrog Group.
About 2,100 hospitals were considered for the award. Among those, Sarah Bush Lincoln received a Top Rural distinction. A total of 120 hospitals in the nation were selected as Top Hospitals, including:
- 10 Top Children’s Hospitals
- 37 Top General Hospitals
- 18 Top Rural Hospitals
- 55 Top Teaching Hospitals
Performance across many areas of hospital care is considered in establishing the qualifications for the award, including infection rates, practices for safer surgery, maternity care, and the hospital’s capacity to prevent medication errors. The rigorous standards are defined in each year’s Top Hospital Methodology.
“We are pleased to recognize Sarah Bush Lincoln as a 2019 Leapfrog Top Hospital,” Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, said. “This demonstrates extraordinary dedication to patients and to the Sarah Bush Lincoln community. We congratulate the board, staff and clinicians whose efforts made this honor possible and know they share pride in this achievement.”
To qualify for the Top Hospitals distinction, hospitals must rank top among peers in the 2019 Leapfrog Hospital Survey, which assesses hospital performance on the highest known standards for quality and patient safety, and achieve top performance in its category. To see the full list of institutions honored as 2019 Top Hospitals, visit www.leapfroggroup.org/tophospitals.
About The Leapfrog Group
Founded in 2000 by large employers and other 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.