Cook Children's Medical Center named to 2007 Leapfrog Top Hospitals list

The survey is the most complete and current assessment of hospital quality and safety available. The 2007 Top Hospitals list is based on 1,285 hospitals that responded to the Leapfrog Hospital Quality and Safety Survey as of Aug. 31.

"This survey marks a significant achievement for Cook Children's Medical Center, and our entire organization," said Rick Merrill, president and CEO of Cook Children's. "To be named among many of the nation's elite hospitals, both adult and pediatric, shows a tremendous collaborative effort among our physicians and employee base."

The survey reveals significant findings about the state of health care quality and safety in the nation's hospitals, including:

• Computerized Physician Order Entry. Do physicians enter patient prescriptions and other orders into computers linked to error prevention software?
• ICU Physician Staffing. Are intensive care units staffed by trained ICU specialists (intensivists) 24 hours a day, seven days a week?
• Evidence-Based Hospital Referral. How well do hospitals perform seven high-risk procedures and care for three high-risk neonatal conditions.
• Leapfrog Safe Practices Score. How well are hospitals progressing on the other 27 National Quality Forum-endorsed Safe Practices?

"It is nice to be recognized by the Leapfrog Group. At Cook Children's Medical Center we place the highest priority on patient safety and quality care. It is truly an honor to be among the other hospitals that made the Top Hospitals List," said Nancy Cychol, president of the Medical Center at Cook Children's.

Linda Chappell, senior vice president of Quality Management, said Leapfrog's addition of the 27 National Quality Forum safe practices provided greater applicability to pediatric hospitals. In previous years, a majority of the leaps (or measures) were geared toward adult hospitals. However, Cook Children's Medical Center has always excelled in the leap regarding 24/7 board certified pediatric intensivist coverage in its ICU and has made steady progress toward implementation of Computerized Physician Order Entry.

"Accreditation Specialist Cindy Guess and Patient Safety Officer Joann Sanders, M.D., coordinated completion of the Leapfrog survey and although it was a tedious process, completion of the survey was the easy part," Chappell said. "What is important to recognize is the collaborative journey the organization has taken over the past years to make it possible to achieve this remarkable designation."

Chappell said Cook Children's staff, physicians and administration have worked diligently to design and implement quality processes that are evidence based, safe, timely, efficient and effective. "This collaboration is a reflection of our committment to a culture of quality care and service to the patients we serve," Chappell said.

The 2007 Leapfrog Safe Practices Score reflects the updated National Quality Forum list of endorsed safe practices. Several practices on the 2006 list were revised and some new practices were added or substituted. As a result, Leapfrog:

• Adjusted both the content and question wording in the 2007 Survey to reflect National Quality Forum update.
• Increased the rigor of the scoring methodology for each question, no longer giving full credit to hospitals who commit to implement certain practices, but who have not yet done so; and,
• Re-based benchmarks for assessing hospitals' level of implementation for the safe practices to reflect the current 2007 relative performance of hospitals participating in this year's survey.

Due to these changes, many of the hospitals that fully met the standard for the Safe Practices Score leap last year didn't meet the standard this year.

"Cook Children's has made a commitment to being a leader in patient safety and quality. Being named a 2007 Leapfrog Top Hospital recognizes we are on the right path," said President of Cook Children's Physician Network Mark Laney, M.D.

2007 Leapfrog Top Hospitals List

• Alta Bates Summit Medical Center- Summit Campus (Oakland, Calif.)
• Baystate Medical Center (Springfield, Mass)
• Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (Boston, Mass)
• Brigham and Women's Hospital (Boston, Mass.)
• California Pacific Medical Center - Pacific Campus (San Francisco, Calif.)
• Evanston Hospital (Evanston, Ill.)
• Hamot Medical Center (Erie, Pa.)
• Harper-Hutzel Hospital (Detroit, Mich.)
• Henry Ford Hospital (Detroit, Mich.)
• James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute (Columbus, Ohio)
• Lahey Clinic (Burlington, Mass.)
• Lehigh Valley Hospital (Allentown, Pa.)
• Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston, Mass.)
• Mayo Clinic Rochester - Saint Mary's Hospital (Rochester, Minn.)
• Montefiore Medical Center: Moses Division (Bronx, N.Y.)
• Montefiore Medical Center: Weiler Division (Bronx, N.Y.)
• Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital (Saint Louis Park, Minn.)
• Saint Luke's Hospital (Jacksonville, Fla.)
• Saint Mary's Mercy Medical Center (Grand Rapids, Mich.)
• Saint Thomas Hospital (Nashville, Tenn.)
• Sinai Hospital (Baltimore, Md.)
• Spectrum Health - Butterworth Campus (Grand Rapids, Mich.)
• Stanford Hospital and Clinics (Stanford, Calif.)
• Summa Health Systems Hospitals -- Akron City Hospital (Akron, Ohio)
• University of California - UCLA Medical Center (Los Angeles, Calif.)
• University of Maryland Medical Center (Baltimore, Md.)
• University of North Carolina Hospitals at Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
• UPMC Presbyterian Part of UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
• Valley Hospital (Ridgewood, N.J.)
• Vanderbilt University Hospital (Nashville, Tenn.)
• Vassar Brothers Medical Center (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.)
• Virginia Mason Medical Center (Seattle, Wash.)
• William Beaumont Hospital (Royal Oak, Mich.)

• Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston (Atlanta, Ga.)
• Children's Hospital of Michigan (Detroit, Mich.)
• Children's Hospital of Orange County (Orange, Calif.)
• Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota - Minneapolis (Minneapolis, Minn.)
• Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota - Saint Paul (Saint Paul, Minn.)
• Children's National Medical Center (Washington, D.C.)
• Cook Children's Medical Center (Fort Worth, Texas)
• Miller Children's Hospital (Long Beach, Calif.)