Sobering Report for National Nurses’ Week: 40 Percent of Hospitals Fail to Meet National Nursing Workforce Standard According to Leapfrog Group
May 13, 2015
Analysis by The Leapfrog Group and Castlight Health Shows Slight Improvement Since 2013
WASHINGTON – May 12, 2015 – The majority of workers in American hospitals are nurses and they are key to quality care, but hospitals can do more to support them, according to a report released today by nonprofit hospital watchdog The Leapfrog Group. The results, as analyzed by Castlight Health, determined that while hospitals are making improvements, more progress is needed to attain Leapfrog’s standard for nursing, which is based on the National Quality Forum (NQF) endorsed safe practices on nursing workforce. According to the report, 40 percent of hospitals reporting to the Leapfrog Hospital Survey did not comply with all of the 21 endorsed safe practices related to nursing workforce.
“Anyone who has ever been a patient in a hospital knows how critical the nurses are to health and life,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, “Employers and other purchasers that are part of Leapfrog’s movement appreciate the hospitals that voluntarily report this data to us—and then make a commitment to improve.”
“This report gives us an understanding of what hospitals are doing to make their nursing staff and leadership the best they can be, such as having an adequately resourced nurse staffing plan, embedding experienced nurses into senior management teams, and funding the maintenance of professional knowledge and skills,” said Dr. Jennifer Schneider, M.D., M.S., chief medical officer for Castlight Health.
The safe practices require that all nursing staff services and leadership are able to provide adequate and safe care. To attain this standard, hospitals must either comply with the 21 Leapfrog nursing workforce safe practices or, alternatively, achieve Magnet Status® recognition from the American Nursing Credentials Center, which recognizes health care organizations for quality patient care, nursing excellence and innovations in professional nursing practice. Leapfrog is the only hospital rating provider that tracks and rewards Magnet Status®.
Leapfrog’s nursing standard report is intended to focus attention on improving health care quality. Nurses represent the largest group of health care professionals, with nearly 58 percent employed by hospitals. Despite this, little data besides that from the Leapfrog Hospital Survey is available on the status of the nursing workforce in hospitals. Because of the direct link between nursing and high-quality care, improvement of nursing workforce safe practices is needed in order to provide patients with the best, safest care.
Key report findings include:
- The percentage of hospitals that meet all 21 of Leapfrog nursing workforce safe practices grew from 52 percent in 2013 to 60 percent in 2014. Despite this increase, two in five reporting hospitals did not fully meet Leapfrog standards.
- Leapfrog-reporting hospitals achieving Magnet Status increased from 15.5 percent in 2013 to 16 percent in 2014. Only 7 percent of all hospitals nationwide have achieved Magnet Status.
To view the complete report on nursing best practices, visit: http://www.leapfroggroup.org/HospitalSurveyReport. Additionally, data is searchable by region or by hospital via the Leapfrog Hospital Survey results.
Today’s report is the fourth in a series of six reports examining key quality and safety measures at hospitals nationwide, based on data taken from the 2014 Leapfrog Hospital Survey of 1,501 U.S. hospitals and analyzed by Castlight Health. The initial reports on maternity care, high-risk procedures, and computerized physician order entry (CPOE), as well as future publications in the report series, will be available at http://www.leapfroggroup.org/HospitalSurveyReport.
About The Leapfrog Group
National nonprofit watchdog The Leapfrog Group evaluates and reports on the safety and quality performance of U.S. hospitals for the benefit of consumers, employers and other health care purchasers. Leapfrog is deeply committed to increasing transparency among health care providers in order to achieve its goal of reducing the estimated 440,000 annual deaths from unnecessary hospital errors. Findings and data from the flagship Leapfrog Hospital Survey allow purchasers of health care to structure contracts and purchasing toward the highest performing hospitals, while providing consumers with potentially lifesaving information on hospital quality. The biannual Hospital Safety Score, which assigns letter grades to hospitals based on how safe they are for patients, empowers consumers to search for a local ‘A’ hospital for their life-long health care needs.
About Castlight Health
Castlight Health, Inc. (NYSE:CSLT) is a leader in enterprise healthcare management. We believe great healthcare builds great business and U.S. enterprises can gain control over the $620 billion spent annually on healthcare, transforming a crippling cost into a strategic business advantage. Recognized as a top 2014 software platform by the HR Technology Conference & Exposition, Castlight’s Enterprise Healthcare Cloud enables employers to understand and manage all their healthcare investments while helping employees make the best possible healthcare decisions. Castlight is a great place to work, honored with a Glassdoor Employees’ Choice award and recognized by Rock Health for Diversity in Leadership. For more information, visit www.castlighthealth.com. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn and Like us on Facebook. Source: Castlight Health.
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CONTACTS:
Ashley Duvall
Stern + Associates / Leapfrog
908-325-3865
Jim Rivas
Castlight Health
415-515-8780
Castlight Health® is the registered trademark of Castlight Health, Inc. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.
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