The Defense Health Agency announced May 1, 2024, that nine military hospitals received an “A” Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, demonstrating DHA’s commitment to safe, high-quality health care, and transparency.

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is a letter-grade program that focuses exclusively on a hospital’s patient safety measures through more than 30 national performance indicators. Each indicator reflects errors, accidents, injuries, and infections, as well as the systems hospitals have in place to prevent patient harm. This enables all hospitals, including military, to publicly report their progress in quality and safety.

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade program is run by the Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit watchdog that advocates for improved patient safety in health care. The program is peer-reviewed, fully transparent, and free to the public.

Leapfrog released the spring 2024 hospital safety grades this week.

“We commend all of our health care teams for their unwavering commitment to high reliability and excellence.” said Dr. Paul Cordts, the chief medical officer for DHA.

DHA is the first federal health system to participate in the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade program. Currently, all military inpatient hospitals and clinics track and report areas that are surveyed in the program.

“We’re humbled at everyone’s enthusiastic participation across our health care system,” said Cordts, who also serves as DHA’s deputy assistant director for medical affairs responsible for clinical quality and patient safety. “The quality and safety assurance measures and improvement initiatives that are in place ensure that we’re providing the best care possible for our beneficiaries.”

The nine hospitals that received an “A” grade are:

• 96th Medical Group, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida
• 673rd Medical Group, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska
• Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center, Fort Cavazos, Texas
• Evans Army Community Hospital, Fort Carson, Colorado
• Naval Hospital Jacksonville, Jacksonville, Florida
• Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland
• William Beaumont Army Medical Center, Fort Bliss, Texas
• Womack Army Medical Center, Fort Liberty, North Carolina
• Wright-Patterson Medical Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio

Quality, Patient Safety, and Access Information for Patients

It’s easy to find information on how military hospitals and clinics are performing. At the Quality, Patient Safety and Access hub, beneficiaries can find data showing how military medical facilities score on industry standard measures for patient safety, health care outcomes, quality of care, patient satisfaction, and access to care.

At the transparency hub, Department of Defense beneficiaries can compare external records from the Leapfrog Group for health care safety and quality in its Hospital Safety Grade Program, and:

• The Joint Commission’s quality check, which conducts independent licensing inspections of all U.S. hospitals and clinics every three years
• The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Care Compare initiative

This electronic open archive provides users with the ability to review their chosen military hospital or clinic across the three organizations with clear data showing how the facilities score on industry standard measures for patient safety, health care outcomes, quality of care, patient satisfaction, and access to care.

For example, you can specify a military hospital or clinic by name and review data on patient access to care and patient satisfaction reviews, quality of care, and patient safety information. You can also view overall ratings, which summarize dozens of core quality measures, and download data sheets. A feature of the transparency tool is the ability to compare up to three facilities in a geographic area at once.

Three other external national quality registries that rate military hospitals and clinics highly include the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program, National Perinatal Information Center, and the Health Employer Data Information System.

As another measure of transparency, each year the DHA publicly releases a comprehensive report detailing how the system is meeting the standards set for quality, safety, and patient satisfaction.

Titled “Annual Evaluation of the TRICARE Program,” at over 200 pages, it provides in-depth data that reflect the current state of the Military Health System with in-depth reviews and analysis covering quality of care, patient trends, hospital and clinic ratings, and patient safety statistics. It also provides population statistics, TRICARE plan enrollment data, and a financial breakdown of the DOD’s medical programs. The report, required by law, is distributed to Congress and other stakeholders and is publicly available.

Cordts underscored the significance of this safety grade.

“We are extremely proud of this recognition and celebrate these accomplishments because it shows we are doing the best job we can to take care of our beneficiaries,” Cordts said.