BRIGHTON – St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center has been awarded an “A” rating Hospital Safety Grade by The Leapfrog Group, a national non-profit upholding the standard of excellence in patient safety. The top grade recognizes the medical center’s ongoing dedication to upholding the highest national standards in patient safety.

“This recognition by Leapfrog reaffirms the commitment our staff, physicians and clinical care teams have in the care of our patients,” said Paul C. Smith, president of St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center. “We remain steadfast in making patient safety our highest priority and delivering the best care in the safest environment for our patients.”

St. Elizabeth’s is joined by Saint Anne’s Hospital in Fall River, also a Steward Health Care hospital, as being recognized with the “A” Safety Grade.

The Leapfrog Group assigns an “A,” “B,” “C,” “D” or “F” grade to all general hospitals across the country based on more than 30 national performance measures reflecting errors, accidents, injuries, and infections, as well as the systems hospitals have in place to prevent harm.

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.

Developed under the guidance of a national expert panel, the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses up to 27 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign grades to U.S. acute-care hospitals twice per year. The Hospital Safety Grade’s methodology is peer-reviewed and fully transparent, and the results are free to the public.

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About St. Elizabeth's Medical Center
St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, a Boston University Teaching Hospital, offers patients access to some of Boston's most respected physicians and advanced treatments for a full-range of medical specialties, including family medicine, cardiovascular care, women and infants' health, cancer care, neurology care, and orthopedics. The 308-bed tertiary care facility is part of Steward Health Care. For more information, visit www.semc.org.

About Steward Health Care 
Over a decade ago, Steward Health Care System emerged as a different kind of health care company designed to usher in a new era of wellness. One that provides our patients better, more proactive care at a sustainable cost, our providers unrivaled coordination of care, and our communities greater prosperity and stability. 
 
As the country’s largest physician-led, minority-owned, integrated health care system, our doctors can be certain that we share their interests and those of their patients. Together we are on a mission to revolutionize the way health care is delivered - creating healthier lives, thriving communities and a better world. 
 
Steward is among the nation’s largest and most successful accountable care organizations (ACO), with more than 5,500 providers and 43,000 health care professionals who care for 12.3 million patients a year through a closely integrated network of hospitals, multispecialty medical groups, urgent care centers, skilled nursing facilities and behavioral health centers. 
 
Based in Dallas, Steward currently operates 33 hospitals across Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

For more information, visit www.steward.org.

About The Leapfrog Group
Founded in 2000 by large employers and other purchasers, The Leapfrog Group is a national nonprofit organization driving a movement for giant leaps for patient safety. The flagship Leapfrog Hospital Survey and Leapfrog Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) Survey collect and transparently report hospital and ASC performance, empowering purchasers to find the highest-value care and giving consumers the lifesaving information they need to make informed decisions. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, Leapfrog's other main initiative, assigns letter grades to hospitals based on their record of patient safety, helping consumers protect themselves and their families from errors, injuries, accidents and infections. For more, follow us on Twitter and Facebook, and sign up for our newsletter.