Lives Lost and Lives Saved

The Leapfrog Group recently contracted with the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality to update its estimate of deaths due to errors, accidents, injuries and infections at “A”, “B”, “C”, “D” and “F” hospitals. Overall, an estimated 160,000 lives are lost annually from the avoidable medical errors that are accounted for in the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, a significant improvement from 2016, when researchers estimated 205,000 avoidable deaths. The analysis also found that D and F hospitals carry nearly twice the risk of mortality of A hospitals. Over 50,000 lives could be saved if all hospitals performed at the level of A graded hospitals.

For more details, view the full white paper.