COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENT
The Leapfrog Group’s annual list of Top Hospitals was announced today in Baltimore, Maryland and included Sturdy Memorial Hospital in Attleboro, MA. The announcement came at Leapfrog’s Annual Meeting, focusing on transparency as the key to improved hospital safety, and Top Hospital Awards.

“Leapfrog holds hospitals to the highest standards on behalf of our purchaser members and their employees. By achieving the Top Hospital accolade, Sturdy Memorial has demonstrated exemplary performance across all areas of quality and patient safety that are analyzed on the Leapfrog Hospital Survey. This hospital stands out as one consistently providing safe, high quality care, and I would be comfortable sending my family to Sturdy Memorial for care,” said Leah Binder, President & CEO of The Leapfrog Group.

“Everyone at Sturdy – including physicians, nurses, other clinicians, and the entire leadership team – is deeply committed to providing safe, optimum quality care to the people we serve,” said Linda Shyavitz, President & CEO of Sturdy. “It’s wonderful to be recognized by The Leapfrog Group.”

Sturdy Memorial was selected as a Top Hospital out of nearly 1,200 hospitals participating in The Leapfrog Group’s annual survey. Hospitals reaching this achievement include academic medical centers, teaching hospitals, children’s hospitals, and community hospitals in rural, suburban and urban settings. The selection is based on the results of the Leapfrog Group’s annual hospital survey, which measures hospitals’ performance on patient safety and quality, focusing on three critical areas of hospital care: how patients fare, resource use, and management structures in place to prevent errors. The results of the survey are posted on a website (http://www.leapfroggroup.org/cp) open to patients and families, the public, employers, and other purchasers of healthcare.

As a 2012 Top Hospital, Sturdy Memorial met the following standards for safe, high quality care:

• A hospital must fully meet Leapfrog’s standard for Preventing Medication Errors (CPOE)
• A hospital must fully meet Leapfrog’s standard for ICU Physician Staffing (IPS)
• A hospital must fully meet Leapfrog’s standards for high-risk surgeries and procedures (Hospitals must achieve a score of “fully meets” for 50% of the surgeries or procedures that apply)
• A hospital must achieve a Value Score of 69 or Better as calculated through Leapfrog’s Hospital Recognition Program (LHRP Value Score)
• Hospitals eligible for a Hospital Safety ScoreSM must receive an A on the letter grades publicly reported at the time of the Top Hospital public announcement

Sturdy Memorial Hospital (www.sturdymemorial.org) is a full-service, independent, financially stable, not-for-profit acute care community hospital located in Attleboro, Massachusetts.

The Leapfrog Group (www.leapfroggroup.org) is a national organization using the collective leverage of large purchasers of health care to initiate breakthrough improvements in the safety, quality, and affordability of health care for Americans. The flagship Leapfrog Hospital Survey allows purchasers to structure their contracts and purchasing to reward the highest performing hospitals. The Leapfrog Group was founded in November 2000 with support from the Business Roundtable and national funders, and is now independently operated with support from its purchaser and other members.