Rush Hospitals Receive Straight A's for Safety

All three Rush hospitals — Rush University Medical Center, Rush Oak Park Hospital and Rush-Copley Medical Center — have received an ‘A’ grade, the highest possible, from the Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit patient safety watchdog organization. Leapfrog announced the latest round of its twice-yearly safety grades today, awarding A grades to 823 hospitals out of the 2,639 in the United States that it evaluated for their commitment to reducing errors, infections, and accidents that can harm patients. 

Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and Rush-Copley Medical Center in west suburban Aurora now have received A grades in each of the 11 times the Leapfrog Group has rated hospitals since launching the organization’s Hospital Safety Score in June 2012 — putting them among the elite 63 (2.4 percent) of the hospitals receiving grades that have earned the top score every time. Rush Oak Park Hospital, in the near west suburb Oak Park, received its second consecutive A and its fourth overall.

“Keeping our patients safe from medical errors and hospital-acquired infections that would worsen their condition obviously is crucial to helping them get better. That all three Rush hospitals again have received A’s from the Leapfrog Group, shows that we are meeting a standard that few other hospitals or systems can match for ensuring our patient’s well-being,” said Dr. Larry Goodman, CEO of the Rush system, which includes the three hospitals. Goodman also is CEO of Rush University Medical Center.

Combining personal touch with rigorous safety practices

Leapfrog used 30 measures of publicly available hospital data to assign scores of A, B, C, D or F. The score represents each hospital’s overall performance in keeping patients safe from preventable medical errors, accidents, injuries and infections while they are in the hospital.

“Our physicians and staff are focused on providing quality service and care that’s delivered with the highest standards of safety,” said Barry C. Finn, president and CEO of Rush-Copley. “This recognition is a testament to the strong culture of safety and advanced medicine and compassionate care that patients experience at Rush-Copley.”

“At Rush Oak Park Hospital, we have the benefit of combining the convenience and personal touch of a community hospital with the technology and medical expertise of a major university medical center,” said Bruce Elegant, president and CEO of Rush Oak Park Hospital. “To be recognized back-to-back for our patient safety efforts shows how committed our staff is to providing the best quality care in our community.”

A-level care saves lives

An analysis conducted for Leapfrog found that an estimated 206,021 avoidable deaths occur in hospitals in the United States each year, and that an estimated 33,439 lives could be saved annually if all hospitals performed as well as A-rated hospitals such as Rush University Medical Center. The study also found that the risk of avoidable death was 9 percent higher in B hospitals than A hospitals, and rose to 35 percent higher in C hospitals and 50 percent higher in D and F hospitals. Johns Hopkins Medicine’s Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality provided the analysis in the spring of this year, using that period’s round of safety grade data.

The Leapfrog Group compiles the Hospital Safety Score under the guidance of the nation’s leading experts on patient safety in order to provide the public with information that people can use to protect themselves and their families. A full analysis of the data and methodology used is available on the Hospital Safety Score website.

To see Rush’s scores as they compare nationally and locally, and to find safety tips for patients and their loved ones, visit the Hospital Safety Score website.

‘A’ grade is latest in steady stream of honors for Rush hospitals

The Leapfrog grade is the latest in a consistent stream of honors for Rush System hospitals that are unique among U.S. academic health systems, including the following recognitions.

• Both Rush-Copley Medical Center and Rush Oak Park Hospital received the Leapfrog Group’s Top Hospitals designation (which is different from Leapfrog’s safety grade) in December.
• Rush University Medical Center and Rush Oak Park Hospital each have received four stars from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Hospital Compare overall rating. Both have been rated four stars in each quarter since July, when CMS began issuing the overall rating.  
• In September, Rush University Medical Center was ranked fifth in the nation among 102 leading academic medical centers in the latest annual quality and accountability study conducted by Vizient Inc.
• In August, U.S. News & World Report’s annual “Best Hospitals” issue ranked Rush University Medical Center among the best hospitals in the country in nine specialty areas. The orthopedics program was ranked fourth in the country, making it the highest-ranked orthopedics program in Illinois for the second year in a row.
• Rush University Medical Center received its fourth consecutive Magnet designation, the highest honor in nursing, in January 2016, and Rush Oak Park Hospital received Magnet status in March of that year.
• In March, the Human Rights Campaign — a civil rights organization that advocates for equality for people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and/or queer/questioning — named Rush University Medical Center a Leader in LGBT Health Equality for nine consecutive year. The HRC also named Rush Oak Park Hospital a leader for the fourth consecutive year.
• Rush University Medical Center and Rush Oak Park Hospital both have received the Healthgrades Outstanding Patient Experience Award, which recognizes hospitals that provide an overall outstanding patient experience. Healthgrades evaluates patient experience performance by applying a scoring methodology to 10 patient experience measures, using data collected from the 32-question survey of the hospital’s own patients. Hospitals in the top 15% with the highest overall patient experience scores are recognized as Outstanding Patient Experience Award recipients.

For media inquiries, please contact kevin_mckeough@rush.edu.