The national distinction recognized the achievements protecting patients from harm and providing safer health care.

Published: November 7, 2019 | Updated: December 14, 2020

All four Norton Healthcare adult-service hospitals were awarded an “A” in the fall 2019 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade. This national distinction recognized the achievements of Norton Hospital in downtown Louisville, Norton Audubon Hospital, Norton Women’s & Children’s Hospital, and Norton Brownsboro Hospital in protecting patients from harm and providing safer health care.

The Leapfrog Group is an independent national watchdog organization driven by employers and other purchasers of health care committed to improving health care quality and safety. The Hospital Safety Grade assigns an A, B, C, D or F grade to all general adult-service hospitals across the country based on their performance in preventing medical errors, injuries, accidents, infections and other harms to patients in their care. Pediatric hospitals are not rated by the Leapfrog Group.

“This ‘A’ ranking at each of our hospitals is a testament to the hard work of our dedicated providers and team members who consistently deliver safe, high-quality care to our patients,” said Russell F. Cox, President and CEO, Norton Healthcare.

“‘A’ hospitals show us their leadership in protecting patients from preventable medical harm and error,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “It takes genuine commitment at every level — from clinicians to administrators to the board of directors — and we congratulate the teams who have worked so hard to earn this A.”

Developed under the guidance of a national expert panel, the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses 28 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign grades to more than 2,600 U.S. acute-care hospitals twice per year. The Hospital Safety Grade’s methodology is peer-reviewed and fully transparent, and the results are free to the public.

The Leapfrog group is one of the many organizations that rate hospital on the care they provide, and each uses slightly different criteria.