All Steward Health Care Acute Care Hospitals Awarded "A" Safety Grade by Independent Industry Watchdog

Saint Anne's Hospital and Morton Hospital Also Earn Top Hospital Distinction

BOSTON, Dec. 4, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- All ten acute care hospitals in the Steward Health Care System (Steward) were awarded  an "A" grade in the Fall 2013 update to the Hospital Safety Score, which rates how well hospitals protect patients from accidents, errors, injuries and infections. The Hospital Safety Score is compiled under the guidance of the nation's leading experts on patient safety and is administered by The Leapfrog Group (Leapfrog), an independent industry watchdog. The first and only hospital safety rating to be analyzed in the peer-reviewed Journal of Patient Safety, the Score is designed to give the public information they can use to protect themselves and their families.

In addition, Saint Anne's Hospital and Morton Hospital were each designated as a Top Hospital out of a record number of 1,324 hospitals participating in The Leapfrog Group's annual survey. Hospitals reaching this achievement include academic medical centers, teaching hospitals, children's hospitals, and community hospitals in rural, suburban and urban settings.  The selection is based on the results of the Leapfrog Group's annual hospital survey, which measures hospitals' performance on patient safety and quality, focusing on three critical areas of hospital care: how patients fare, resource use, and management structures in place to prevent errors.

"We are incredibly proud of these awards because they recognize our ongoing commitment to health care quality and safety," said Justine Carr, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Steward.  "In the past three years, Steward has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in new services, new physicians, significant infrastructure improvements and new clinical technology to improve the quality of care and patient experience in our hospitals."

"As patients begin to take a more active role in selecting where to receive health care, it has never been more important to focus on hospital safety and transparency. The 'A' hospitals, including those in the Steward system, are helping us to raise the standards of health care nationwide," said Leah Binder, president and CEO of Leapfrog. "We offer our congratulations and hope Steward will continue to strive for an ever-increasing level of excellence in patient safety."

Calculated under the guidance of Leapfrog's Blue Ribbon Expert Panel, the Hospital Safety Score uses 28 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to produce a single "A," "B," "C," "D," or "F" score representing a hospital's overall capacity to keep patients safe from preventable harm. More than 2,500 general U.S. hospitals were assigned scores this Fall.

Further information is available at www.steward.org and www.leapfrog.org.

SOURCE Steward Health Care System