Ascension Sacred Hearts earns an ‘A’

Ascension Sacred Heart in Pensacola has once again been awarded an ‘A’ from The Leapfrog Group’s Hospital Safety Grade for Spring 2022. The national designation recognizes the hospital’s efforts in protecting patients from harm and meeting the highest safety standards.

Leapfrog released its latest bi-annual safety grades on May 12. Ascension Sacred Heart is the only hospital in the Pensacola area to receive the Leapfrog’s top grade.

The Leapfrog Group is a national organization committed to improving health care quality and safety for consumers and purchasers. The Safety Grade assigns an A, B, C, D or F grade to hospitals across the country based on their performance in preventing medical errors, infections and other harms among patients in their care.

“This award demonstrates our commitment to safety from the entire team,” said Dawn Rudolph, president of Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola. “Achieving this level of excellence during the stress of the pandemic is especially gratifying. We are proud of our efforts to continue to provide high-quality, compassionate care in the safest possible setting for anyone who needs it.”

Leapfrog assigns a letter grade to nearly 3,000 U.S. general hospitals based on over 30 measures of patient safety. Those include safety data on hand hygiene, risk mitigation, and discharge communication, as well as outcome measures such as falls, pressure ulcers, and infections. Leapfrog provides the only hospital ratings program based exclusively on hospitals’ prevention of medical errors and other harms to patients in their care.

The latest grades “continue to show significant variation in safety performance across U.S. hospitals,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of the Leapfrog Group. “This variability is a constant reminder that the public must have access to information on which hospitals are safer so patients can make the best decision for themselves and their loved ones.”

For more information about the Hospital Safety Grade, including details on individual hospital grades and state rankings, please visit HospitalSafetyGrade.org.