Multiple St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN) hospitals were named to the Top Hospital list recently announced by Leapfrog Group, an independent nonprofit hospital safety watchdog.
Of the nine hospitals in Pennsylvania to earn the prestigious Top Hospital designation from Leapfrog, more than half are St. Luke’s facilities:
- St. Luke’s University Hospital-Bethlehem Campus
- St. Luke’s Allentown Campus
- St. Luke’s Anderson Campus
- St. Luke’s Carbon Campus
- St. Luke’s Easton Hospital
Additionally, St. Luke’s Warren Campus was named a Top Hospital in New Jersey, and St. Luke’s Twin Rivers and St. Luke’s Buxmont were named Top Ambulatory Surgical centers.
Leapfrog’s Top Hospital award recognizes the highest performing hospitals in the United States in the Teaching, General, Rural and Children’s categories. It is based on objective data across many areas of hospital care, including infection rates and the hospital’s capacity to prevent medication errors.
More than 2,100 hospitals were considered for the award. A total of 132 Top Hospitals were selected, including eight Top Children’s, 35 Top General, 15 Top Rural and 74 Top Teaching hospitals.
“These prestigious recognitions are a credit to St. Luke’s outstanding leadership, providers, nurses and other hospital staff and volunteers,” said St. Luke’s Chief Quality Officer Donna Sabol. “Working together as a team, we have designed and implemented a standardized approach to quality and safety that ensures our entire region enjoys local access to St. Luke’s world-class health care.”
St. Luke’s Anderson Campus is located at the intersection of Rt. 33 and Freemansburg Avenue in Bethlehem Township, Northampton County. The hospital is part of St. Luke’s University Health Network. (Contributed photo)
Last month, Leapfrog released its fall Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades, awarding high marks to every St. Luke’s University Health Network hospital eligible for evaluation. Nationwide, only a few other similar-sized health systems, such as the Mayo Clinic, earned as many ‘A’ grades as St. Luke’s.
For the Leapfrog Top Hospital award, data is gathered and publicly reported through the Leapfrog Hospital Survey. The survey compares hospitals’ performance on national standards of patient safety, quality, efficiency and management structures that prevent errors, providing the most comprehensive picture of how patients fare at individual institutions. The data collected also enables hospitals to benchmark their progress toward Leapfrog’s standards and measure the care they deliver.
“Protecting patients from preventable harm is the cornerstone of The Leapfrog Group’s mission,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “St. Luke’s has demonstrated that patient safety is their top priority, and we’re truly pleased to recognize them as a Top Hospital this year. Congratulations to hospital staff at all levels who made this national recognition possible.”
The full list of institutions honored as 2023 Top Hospitals is available at LeapfrogGroup.org/tophospitals.
Note: This community health news is brought to you in partnership with St. Luke’s University Health Network.