The Leapfrog survey gives us an opportunity to look at our areas of success and areas for ongoing improvement as we strive to deliver on our commitment to zero harm.
Michael S. Calderwood, MD, MPHDartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC), the flagship academic medical center of Dartmouth Health, received an “A” Hospital Safety Grade for Spring 2023 from The Leapfrog Group. This national distinction recognizes DHMC’s achievements in protecting hospital patients from preventable harm and errors.
“I am proud of the work of our teams throughout the medical center who collaborate in the development and implementation of quality initiatives, reinforce expectations regarding our safety culture, anticipate events that may impact safety, and foster a learning environment anchored in trust and teamwork,” said Michael S. Calderwood, MD, MPH, chief quality officer at DHMC. “The Leapfrog survey gives us an opportunity to look at our areas of success and areas for ongoing improvement as we strive to deliver on our commitment to zero harm. We seek to empower staff to speak up as the foundation of our safety culture, while applying a systematic, data-driven approach to complex problem solving. This year, there was a new section of the survey focused on provider order entry, and a multidisciplinary team worked to improve how we alert an ordering provider about medication contraindications. This shows what we can achieve when we work together to drive positive change.”
The Leapfrog Group is an independent national watchdog organization with a 10-year history of assigning letter grades to general hospitals throughout the United States based on a hospital’s ability to prevent medical errors and harm to patients. The grading system is peer-reviewed, fully transparent, and free to the public. Hospital Safety Grade results are based on more than 30 national performance measures and are updated each fall and spring.
For more information, visit HospitalSafetyGrade.org.
About Dartmouth Health
Dartmouth Health, New Hampshire’s only academic health system and largest private employer, serves patients across New England. Dartmouth Health provides access to more than 2,300 providers in nearly every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH. Its network of hospitals, outpatient centers, clinics and home care facilities, spans a broad geographical area. Year after year, DHMC is named the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and is consistently recognized for high performance in numerous clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth Health includes Dartmouth Cancer Center, northern New England’s only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers and one of less than than 60 total nationally; Dartmouth Health Children’s, which includes the state’s only children’s hospital (Children’s Hospital at DHMC/CHaD) and more than 20 locations around the region; eight member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene, Claremont, Hampstead, and New London, NH, and Windsor and Bennington, VT; Dartmouth Health Home Care; Dartmouth Health Connected Care Center for Telehealth, serving patients as far away as Texas; and more than 30 primary and multi-specialty clinics across New Hampshire and Vermont. Through its partnership with Dartmouth College, Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine and the White River Junction VA Medical Center, Dartmouth Health trains nearly 400 medical residents and fellows annually and performs cutting-edge research and clinical trials with international impact. Dartmouth Health and its more than 16,000 employees are committed to serving the healthcare needs of everyone in the communities it serves and to providing every patient with exceptional, state-of-the-art, personalized care. Learn more at dartmouth-health.org.