Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, UConn John Dempsey Hospital continues to excel in patient safety.

The teaching hospital of UConn Health has received two consecutive letter grade ‘A’ highest hospital patient safety ratings by the national Leapfrog Group.

On Nov. 10, the Leapfrog Group announced its fall 2021 hospital safety grades. UConn Health’s ‘A’ rating provides national recognition for its ongoing success in keeping hospital patients safe from harm and medical errors. In Spring 2021, UConn also received a top “A” patient safety grade from Leapfrog.

“This back-to-back ‘A’ top ranking for highest hospital safety reflects our commitment to high reliability and a focus on patient safety. It also reminds us of the daily hard work and excellence of our front-line care teams – the doctors, nurses, staff, and trainees – as well as the rest of our employees who put our patients and their safety at the center of everything they do each and every day,” says Dr. Scott R. Allen, chief medical officer for UConn Health.

“An ‘A’ Safety Grade is a tremendous achievement,” says Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. This fall UConn John Dempsey Hospital is among only 32% of U.S. hospitals earning the high honor of an ‘A’ in patient safety, and among only eight hospitals in Connecticut.

“I applaud UConn John Dempsey Hospital, its leadership and everyone involved in its high quality patient care and safety measures. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us that together we can accomplish anything, including continuing to keep our patients safe even during the most challenging times in health care,” says Dr. Andrew Agwunobi, CEO of UConn Health and Interim President for UConn.

Twice a year the independent national non-profit Leapfrog Group assigns letter grades from ‘A’ to ‘F’ to more than 2,700 hospitals across the country, based on over 30 national patient safety performance measures and the unique systems hospitals have in place to prevent harm. Each year UConn Health shares additional quality and safety data with the Leapfrog Group to showcase its commitment to a strong culture of safety and excellent patient care experiences.

“This top award is tremendous recognition of all our faculty and staff in John Dempsey Hospital who have worked with great effort throughout the last year to sustain our patient safety and quality excellence,” says Chief Nursing Officer and UConn John Dempsey Hospital Chief Operating Officer Caryl Ryan.

Leapfrog’s hospital grading system is peer-reviewed and free to the public.

Learn more at HospitalSafetyGrade.org.