The Leapfrog Group is an initiative driven by organizations that buy health care who are working to initiate breakthrough improvements in the safety, quality and affordability of healthcare for Americans. The Leapfrog Group is voluntary, and is aimed at mobilizing employer purchasing power to alert America's health industry that big leaps in health care safety, quality and customer value will be recognized and rewarded. Among other initiatives, Leapfrog works with to encourage transparency and easy access to health care information as well as rewards for hospitals that have a proven record of high quality care.
The Leapfrog Group was founded by a small group of large employers, initially supported by the Business Roundtable (BRT) and launched in November 2000. A 1999 report by the Institute of Medicine gave the Leapfrog founders an initial focus - reducing preventable medical mistakes. The report found that up to 98,000 Americans die every year from preventable medical errors made in hospitals alone. The report recommended that employers provide more market reinforcement for the quality and safety of health care. Recent studies support the efficacy of Leapfrog: In the June 2008 issue of the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, it was revealed that hospitals that perform well on the Leapfrog Hospital Survey have lower mortality and better quality care than those who either didn't perform a well on the survey or who chose not to complete the survey. HAC summarized some of the 2008 efforts of participating Northeast and Central Ohio hospitals here.
Leapfrog is supported by the BRT, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Leapfrog members and others. HAC has been involved since 2005, when we were named a Leapfrog Rollout Region Leader. In 2008, the Health Quality Forum Ohio is working with other Ohio organizations to encourage reporting by hospitals across Ohio.
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