All four Norton Healthcare adult-service hospitals were awarded an “A” in the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade for a third straight time. Norton Audubon Hospital, Norton Brownsboro Hospital, Norton Hospital and Norton Women’s & Children’s Hospital each received an “A” grade in fall 2019, spring 2020 and all repeated the national honor again for fall 2020.

Story by: Kate Eller on December 14, 2020

All four Norton Healthcare adult-service hospitals were awarded an “A” in the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade for a third straight time. Norton Audubon Hospital, Norton Brownsboro Hospital, Norton Hospital and Norton Women’s & Children’s Hospital each received an “A” grade in fall 2019, spring 2020 and all repeated the national honor again for fall 2020. (Pediatric hospitals are not rated by The Leapfrog Group.)

This prestigious distinction recognizes the tremendous efforts of Norton Healthcare’s hospitals in protecting patients from harm and providing safe health care.

The Leapfrog Group is an independent national nonprofit 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 harm to patients in their care.

“The hard work of our dedicated providers and employees, who consistently strive to deliver safe, high-quality care to our patients, is the reason each of our adult-service hospitals continue to get  this ‘A’ ranking,” said Russell F. Cox, president and CEO, Norton Healthcare. “While working through the current COVID-19 public health crisis, our team continues to step up and provide the quality care our community expects and deserves.”

“We are extremely grateful to hospital leadership and health care workers who have remained steadfast in prioritizing patient safety as our nation battles COVID-19,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “This ‘A’ is a testament to the care and commitment of those who work Norton Healthcare’s hospitals. With the current pandemic exposing existing flaws within the U.S. health care system, we appreciate you putting patient safety first. Lives depend on it.”

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 many organizations that rate hospitals on the care they provide, and each uses slightly different criteria.