Fourth Consecutive “A” Hospital Safety Grade for UConn John Dempsey Hospital

The National Leapfrog Group announces UConn John Dempsey Hospital’s fourth consecutive “A” Hospital Safety Grade. This national distinction celebrates achievements in protecting hospital patients from preventable harm and errors.

Aerial views of the UConn Health Farmington campus, captured by drone in November 2021. (Ethan Giorgetti/UConn Health photo)

On November 16, 2022, the national Leapfrog Group announced UConn John Dempsey Hospital’s fourth consecutive “A” Hospital Safety Grade. This national distinction celebrates achievements in protecting hospital patients from preventable harm and errors.

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.  JDH received the “A” rating in both the spring and fall of 2022.

“I thank our incredible leadership, nurses, doctors, and staff for continuing to excel at putting patients and their safety first,” says Dr. Bruce Liang, interim CEO of UConn Health. “The consistency in top patient safety scores is  recognition of your clinical care excellence.”

“We are proud of the strong commitment to safety and transparency from our Board of Directors down to our frontline staff who continuously prioritize patient safety while adapting to an evolving healthcare landscape, including the challenges posed by a global pandemic,” says Dr. Scott Allen, chief medical officer for UConn Health

Leapfrog announced its Fall 2022 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades ranging from ‘A’ to ‘F’ after surveying 32 hospitals in Connecticut and nearly 3,000 hospitals nationwide on over 30 key patient safety measures such as a hospital’s ability to protect patients from preventable errors, accidents, injuries, and infections.  In addition, this year’s survey also included five measures of patient experience that have a direct tie to patient safety outcomes such as enhanced provider communication.

In Connecticut, seven hospitals received an A, 15 hospitals received a B, six hospitals received a C and no hospitals received either a D or an F grade.

“Continuing to earn this top award is a remarkable recognition of all our faculty and staff at John Dempsey Hospital who work with great effort every day to achieve improved patient outcomes and clinical excellence during the most demanding times in health care,” says Caryl Ryan, chief nursing officer and UConn John Dempsey Hospital chief operating officer.

Note, The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is the only hospital rating program based exclusively on hospital prevention of medical errors and harm to patients. The biannual grading system released in the fall and spring of each year is fully transparent and free to the public.

Learn more at HospitalSafetyGrade.org.