John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety Awards. The Leapfrog Group for Patient Safety: rewarding higher standards.

BACKGROUND: The Leapfrog Group is a consortium of more than 145 large health care purchasers committed to a common set of purchasing principles through which to leverage dramatic improvements in the safety, quality, and overall value of health care. Leapfrog purchasers mobilize consumers to seek out higher-quality providers, and they reward higher-quality providers. Leapfrog is primarily operationalized through Regional Roll-Outs--locally led purchaser efforts. PATIENT SAFETY RECOMMENDATIONS: The Leapfrog Group purchasers first focused on three patient safety practices, or "safety leaps," to reduce preventable medical errors--computer physician order entry, evidence-based hospital referral, and intensive care unit (ICU) physician staffing. Leapfrog's leaps are refined and updated annually on the basis of evidence and input from experts in the field. IMPACT ON PATIENT SAFETY: On the basis of survey results from the first 22 Regional Roll-Outs, as of September 2003, 4% of 633 hospitals reporting from the 22 regions fully met the CPOE standard, and an additional 17% of the 633 said they would meet the standard by 2005. Survey results also showed that 22% of the 605 hospitals in the 22 regions with ICUs met Leapfrog's ICU staffing recommendations and that an additional 5% would meet the standard by 2004. NEXT STEPS: In 2004 Leapfrog will launch new Regional Roll-Outs, bringing Leapfrog consumer education, hospital-specific information, and purchasing strategies to more communities nationwide.