Leapfrog places big emphasis on CPOE

Leapfrog Group has named 33 hospitals to this year's list of its top safety performers, a number that has shrunk from prior years as the ratings organization has gotten tougher. Its new standards include a requirement that top hospitals have a fully-functioning CPOE system in place, a requirement which very few institutions can meet at present.

This year, 26 hospitals and seven children's hospitals met all of Leapfrog's standards, which include high scores in at least one high-risk procedure, such as heart bypass surgery, level of intensive care unit staffing and showing progress on 13 additional safe practices. This year, Leapfrog also required winning hospitals to have CPOE systems in place--and to have 75 percent of all medication orders going through such systems--a "leap" few hospitals have done to date.

Leapfrog is pushing the use of CPOE, a system under which physicians enter all prescription orders directly into a computer, because leaders there consider it to be an important patient-safety tool. "We are still not seeing the rates of CPOE adoption that we believe are necessary," said Leah Binder, Leapfrog's chief executive officer.

To learn more about Leapfrog's latest standards:
- read this Modern Healthcare piece

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