North Baldwin Infirmary nationally recognized with sixth straight ‘A’ for Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade

North Baldwin Infirmary was awarded an ‘A’ in the spring 2021 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, a national distinction recognizing North Baldwin Infirmary’s achievements for protecting patients from harm and providing safer healthcare. This is the sixth consecutive ‘A’ they have earned, following ‘As’ received for Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020 and Fall 2020.

The Leapfrog Group is an independent national watchdog organization committed to health care quality and safety. The Safety Grade assigns an ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’ or ‘F’ grade to all general hospitals across the country and is updated every six months. It is based on a hospital’s performance in preventing medical errors, injuries, accidents, infections and other harms to patients in their care.

“I am extremely grateful to our hospital leadership team and each of our loyal staff members for making patient safety their top priority each day,” North Baldwin Infirmary President Ben Hansert stated. “It has been a rough year, as ALL of our healthcare heroes battled the effects of the COVID-19 virus and the effects it had on so many of our patients. However, even throughout the pandemic, our staff assured that our patients and their safety was of utmost importance. I sincerely appreciate our entire team.”

“We are extremely grateful to hospital leadership and health care workers who have remained steadfast in prioritizing patient safety as our nation battles COVID-19,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “This ‘A’ is a testament to the care and commitment of those who work for North Baldwin Infirmary. With the pandemic exposing existing flaws within the U.S. health care system, we appreciate North Baldwin Infirmary for putting patient safety first. Lives depend on it.”

Developed under the guidance of a national Expert Panel, the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses up to 27 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign grades to more than 2,600 U.S. acute-care hospitals twice per year. The Hospital Safety Grade’s methodology is peer-reviewed and fully transparent, and the results are free to the public.