HICKORY, NC – Catawba Valley Medical Center (CVMC) has received an
‘A’ Hospital Safety Grade from The Leapfrog Group for Fall
2024. This national distinction recognizes CVMC’s achievements in
protecting patients from preventable harm and error in the hospital, as
well as meeting the highest safety standards in the United States.
CVMC earned the only ‘A’ grade for the Unifour region (Alexander,
Burke, Caldwell, and Catawba). This marks the 16th ‘A’ grade
for safety that CVMC has received in Leapfrog’s last 17 reporting periods.
The Leapfrog Group, an independent national watchdog organization, assigns
an ‘A,’ ‘B,’ ‘C,’ ‘D,’
or ‘F’ grade to general hospitals across the country based
on national performance measures reflecting errors, injuries, accidents
and infections, as well as systems hospitals have in place to prevent
harm. Results are updated each fall and spring. Less than one-third of
all U.S. hospitals achieve an ‘A’ grade.
Michelle Lusk, Chief Nursing Officer of Catawba Valley Health System, said,
“It truly is remarkable that our team has continued to perform at
the highest possible level year after year to ensure that our patients
receive exceptional care. Safety and quality must be the top priorities
in a healthcare setting, and we’re so proud to show this region
our commitment to these priorities above all else.”
Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, said in a letter
to CVMC leadership, “Please share your achievement publicly so your
community is reassured that you put your patients first. Your ‘A’
grade reflects well on your institutional culture and tells prospective
employees, patients and clinicians that your hospital is a leader in keeping
patients safe.”
The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is the only hospital ratings program
based exclusively on hospital prevention of medical errors and harms to
patients. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses up to 22 measures of
publicly available hospital safety data to assign grades to nearly 3,000
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 at HospitalSafetyGrade.org.