Leapfrog Group is an initiative driven by healthcare purchasers working to bring about substantive improvements in the safety, quality, and affordability of healthcare for all Americans. Members include large employers such as FedEx, IBM, Sprint, and Toyota, and purchaser organizations that include the Employers’ Health Coalition, Pacific Business Group on Health, and the Tri-State Business Group on Health. Through Leapfrog, purchasers are sending a message to the healthcare industry that leaps forward in the arena are both recognized and rewarded. Prominent past supporters of Leapfrog include the Business Roundtable and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Leapfrog is working for systemwide improvements fueled by informed decisions by those who use and purchase healthcare and through the use of incentives and rewards that promote high-value care. Leapfrog’s efforts are rooted in the belief that much-needed improvements in the country’s healthcare system will occur more quickly if purchasers consistently recognize and reward superior safety and value practices.

“Leapfrog has long partnered with the National Quality Forum in promoting endorsed practices as a means of spurring improvement in hospitals across the country,” said Leah Binder, Leapfrog CEO. “Fundamental improvements will occur much more quickly with the 28 partners at the table.”

Leapfrog’s four major leaps for improvement are:

• Computerized Prescriber Order Entry (CPOE) – CPOE systems, which link patients’ medications to prescription errors, are proven to reduce medication errors by more than 50 percent.
• Evidence-Based Hospital Referral (EBHR) – EBHR identifies the survival odds for certain high-risk common procedures.
• ICU Physician Staffing (IPS) – IPS, a practice that staffs ICUs with “intensivist” doctors who are specially trained in critical care, reduces a patient’s risk of dying in an ICU by 40 percent.
• Leapfrog Safe Practices Score – This score measures hospital performance on NQF-endorsed safe practices, and rates hospitals on their progress with the remaining 27 practices.

Recent studies have shown that if all hospitals implemented Leapfrog standards, more than 65,000 lives could be saved, more than 907,000 medication errors could be avoided, and up to $41.5 billion could be saved each year.

For more information on Leapfrog, please visit www.leapfroggroup.org.