The Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit health care ratings organization, today released new Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades, awarding A’s to St. Luke’s hospitals.

Nine St. Luke’s acute care campuses – Bethlehem, Allentown, Anderson, Carbon, Easton, Monroe, Sacred Heart and Warren, as well as Geisinger St. Luke’s Hospital – were among a select group of hospitals across the nation awarded an A for their commitment to keeping patients safe and meeting the highest safety standards in the nation. St. Luke’s Upper Bucks and Miners campuses earned B’s.

“This prestigious achievement reflects St. Luke’s unwavering focus on providing exceptional care to each and every patient at all of our locations,” says Donna Sabol, St. Luke’s Senior Vice President and Chief Quality Officer. “This kind of consistency across all of our campuses reflects the remarkable success St. Luke’s has achieved in integrating our hospitals into a single, unified network with a shared commitment to all-around excellence.”

The Safety Grade assigns letter grades of A, B, C, D and F twice annually – in the spring and fall – to hospitals nationwide based on their performance in preventing medical errors, infections and other harms.

New this year, Leapfrog awarded a “Straight A” designation to hospitals that have earned A’s at least five times in a row. The following seven St. Luke’s hospitals qualified:

• St. Luke’s Allentown Campus – 10 A’s in a row – Straight A Since 2019
• St. Luke’s Anderson Campus – 13 A’s in a row – Straight A Since 2018
• St. Luke’s Monroe Campus –  11 A’s in a row – Straight A Since 2019
• St. Luke’s Sacred Heart Campus – 8 A’s in a row – Straight A Since 2020
• St. Luke’s Bethlehem Campus – 14 A’s in a row – Straight A Since 2017
• St. Luke’s Warren Campus – 11 A’s in a row – Straight A Since 2019
• Geisinger St. Luke’s Hospital – 5 A’s in a row – Straight A Since 2022

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is the only rating solely focused on a hospital’s ability to protect patients from preventable errors, accidents, injuries and infections. Developed under the guidance of a panel of national experts, it uses 30 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign grades to nearly 3,000 U.S. hospitals.

“Everyone who works at St. Luke’s should be proud of this ‘A’ Hospital Safety Grade,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of Leapfrog. “It takes complete dedication of at every level, and an ironclad commitment to putting patients first. I thank St. Luke’s, its leadership, clinicians, staff and volunteers for caring so deeply for its patients and their safety.”

To see St. Luke’s full grades, and to access patient tips for staying safe in the hospital, visit www.HospitalSafetyGrade.org.

 

About St. Luke’s

Founded in 1872, St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 20,000 employees providing services at 15 campuses and 300+ outpatient sites.  With annual net revenue of $3.4 billion, the Network’s service area includes 11 counties in two states: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. St. Luke’s hospitals operate the largest network of trauma centers in Pennsylvania, with the Bethlehem Campus being home to St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital.

Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke’s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania.  In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley’s first and only four-year medical school campus.  It also operates the nation’s longest continuously operating School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 45 fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with more than 400 residents and fellows. In 2022, St. Luke’s, a member of the Children’s Hospital Association, opened the Lehigh Valley’s first and only free-standing facility dedicated entirely to kids.

SLUHN is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system to earn Medicare’s five-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction.  It is both a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World’s Best Hospital.  The Network’s flagship University Hospital has earned the 100 Top Major Teaching Hospital designation from Fortune/PINC AI 11 times total and eight years in a row, including in 2023 when it was identified as THE #4 TEACHING HOSPITAL IN THE COUNTRY.  In 2021, St. Luke’s was identified as one of the 15 Top Health Systems nationally.  Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of the SLUHN’s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information.  The Network is also recognized as one of the state’s lowest cost providers.

Information provided to TVL by:
Sam Kennedy