Jacobi Medical Center is tops once again, winning a prestigious award for keeping patients safe and quality outcomes.
For the third year in a row, the hospital has taken home a Northeast Business Group on Health’s (NEBGH) Leapfrog Award after being one of about 24 regional hospitals in the New York City metro area, Albany, and Connecticut to complete a survey of operations, said NEBGH Director of Quality Initiatives Kathy Sakraida.
Leapfrog benchmarks hospitals against practices that reduce the risk of medical errors and hospital-acquired infections, and improve patient outcomes.
NEBGH is a coalition of public and private purchasers of employee health coverage dedicated to improving health care safety, quality and affordability.
Jacobi won for Outstanding Performance in Patient Safety and Quality, as determined by survey results for the study, with a safety score of an A letter-grade, she said.
“How we determined who got [this award] was looking at the Leapfrog survey results,” she said. “It was how many measures did [Jacobi] meet and how many did they improve on.”
Last year, Jacobi took home the Greatest Leaps in Patient Safety and Quality awards for having made the most improvement. Queens Hospital Center and Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie, NY also won the regional Leapfrog award recently.
“Patient safety is not an abject concept; it is something we measure every single day with standard benchmarks,” said Jacobi’s Executive Director William Walsh. “By taking a dedicated and labor-intensive approach, we can look our patients in the eye and say, without question, we are providing the safest care possible.”
Laurel Pickering, president and CEO of NEBGH, had words of praise for all winners of this year’s awards, including Jacobi.
“These hospitals and their executives should be proud of their ongoing commitment and the many contributions each has made toward improving the quality and safety of our healthcare system,” she said.
NEBGH provides a region-wide link between local hospitals in New York metro area and the nationwide Leapfrog group, explained Sakraida.
“[Jacobi’s] high levels of performance on Leapfrog’s national standards of quality and safety measures indicate that it is among the safest and best hospitals in the metro New York City area,” said Leah Binder, CEO for the The Leapfrog Group. “The Leapfrog Group thanks them for their commitment to transparency and health care quality in the communities they serve.”
The results of the Leapfrog Group are publicly reported at www.leapfroggroup.org.
