The Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit health care ratings organization, today released new Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades, awarding A\u2019s to every eligible legacy St. Luke\u2019s acute care hospital.<\/p>\n
The 11 campuses \u2013\u00a0Bethlehem<\/a>,\u00a0Allentown<\/a>,\u00a0Anderson<\/a>,\u00a0Carbon<\/a>,\u00a0Easton<\/a>,\u00a0Monroe<\/a>,\u00a0Miners<\/a>,\u00a0Sacred Heart<\/a>,\u00a0Upper Bucks<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Warren<\/a>, as well as\u00a0Geisinger St. Luke\u2019s Hospital<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 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.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know St. Luke\u2019s is truly awesome because everyone is saying it,\u201d said Donna Sabol, St. Luke\u2019s Senior Vice President and Chief Quality Officer. “This month it\u2019s Leapfrog giving St. Luke\u2019s A grades. Last month it was the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which ranked St. Luke\u2019s the #1 health system in the country for quality and safety, ahead of the nationally renowned institutions Houston Methodist and the Mayo Clinic, which rounded out the top three.\u201d<\/p>\n The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade assigns letter grades of A, B, C, D and F twice annually \u2013 in the spring and fall \u2013 to hospitals nationwide based on their performance in preventing medical errors, infections and other harms.<\/p>\n St. Luke’s Grand View, which joined St. Luke\u2019s in July, received a B grade.<\/p>\n The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is the only rating solely focused on a hospital\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u201cPreventable deaths and harm in hospitals have been a major policy concern for decades,\u201d said Leah Binder, president and CEO of Leapfrog. \u201cSignificant variation in performance remains across U.S. hospitals. … All hospitals are not the same.\u201d<\/p>\n In September, the federal AHRQ recognized St. Luke\u2019s alongside national heavyweights Houston Methodist and the Mayo Clinic as the nation\u2019s three high performing health systems for safety and quality, one of three health care systems in the country\u00a0with multiple hospitals demonstrating the high levels of quality and safety performance.\u00a0Of the three, St. Luke\u2019s was ranked #1.<\/p>\n St Luke\u2019s high marks from Leapfrog echo the assessment in August by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS).<\/p>\n In its annual quality and safety hospital review, CMS awarded St. Luke\u2019s hospitals the highest possible quality rating of five stars. St. Luke\u2019s was the only health network in the Lehigh Valley to receive five-star ratings.<\/p>\n Nationwide, an elite 8 percent of 4,658 eligible hospitals earned five stars.<\/p>\n \u201cStraight A\u2019s and five stars \u2013 St. Luke\u2019s is the only health network in Lehigh Valley to ever receive such high marks from both CMS and Leapfrog,\u201d Sabol noted, \u201cand that is a fact.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n About St. Luke\u2019s <\/strong><\/p>\n Founded in 1872, St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network with annual net revenue of more than $4.5 billion. With 23,000+ employees at 16 hospital campuses and 350+ outpatient sites, it is the Lehigh Valley\u2019s biggest employer.<\/p>\n The Network\u2019s 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\u2019s hospitals operate the largest network of trauma centers in Pennsylvania, with the Bethlehem Campus being home to St. Luke\u2019s Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke\u2019s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania. In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley\u2019s first and only four-year medical school. It also operates the nation\u2019s oldest School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 50+ fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with 500+ residents and fellows.<\/p>\n St. Luke\u2019s has been named a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World\u2019s Best Hospital. It is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system to earn Medicare\u2019s five-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction. In 2025, the Network earned straight A\u2019s from Leapfrog across all of its 11 acute care hospitals. It has earned 100 Top Hospital designations from Premier 11 years in a row, including in 2021 when its flagship University Hospital was identified as THE #1 TEACHING HOSPITAL IN THE COUNTRY. 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 SLUHN\u2019s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Information provided to TVL by: The Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit health care ratings organization, today released new Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades, awarding A\u2019s to every eligible legacy St. Luke\u2019s acute care hospital. The 11 … Continue reading St. Luke\u2019s Hospitals Earn A Grades for Safety<\/span>
\nGary R. Blockus<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"