Leapfrog responds to hospital lawsuit, claims Saint Anthony failed to evaluate its own data

The Leapfrog group has replied to a lawsuit filed through a Chicago-region medical institution that says the organization gave it an erroneous affected person protection grade. within the submitting, Leapfrog argues that Saint Anthony medical institution did no longer evaluate its personal records within the needed timetable.

Saint Anthony sued Leapfrog in November claiming that the group knowingly used misguided statistics to decide its patient safety grade inside the fall. Saint Anthony's grade dropped from an "A" inside the spring to a "C."

associated: Saint Anthony health facility sues Leapfrog organization over inaccurate affected person safety grade

The sanatorium said Leapfrog explained that the grade became lowered as it simplest used digital prescribing between 50% and seventy four% of the time. but, inside the lawsuit, the medical institution claims it virtually uses e-prescriptions at least 95% of the time.

Leapfrog did now not dispute that the records used to determine the medical institution's grade could be inaccurate, however said in its affirmative defense (PDF) that Saint Anthony had four opportunities to view the data and request the opportunity to replace it. Leapfrog stated it installed a timetable for all hospitals to follow so that information might be evaluated "under consistent conditions and in a uniform time body."

"Leapfrog adheres to established and nicely-publicized regulations and techniques to preserve consistency and reliability in administering this system and calculating safety Grades," the company stated inside the court docket filing.

related: Leapfrog offers almost 1,000 hospitals a 'C' for affected person protection, however a handful of states are making strides

Leapfrog additionally said inside the submitting that every one taking part hospitals had  weeks in June to check their self-pronounced statistics earlier than it turned into published on-line on the quit of July. Hospitals had been notified to review and replace their surveys via Aug. 31, and on Sept. thirteen have been presented a three-week window to review the autumn grades. 

Leapfrog said inside the courtroom filing that Saint Anthony did log in to the machine to view its facts in October but made no modifications. Hospitals were given some other evaluation duration for the grades in mid-October, and Saint Anthony again had no reaction, in keeping with Leapfrog.

The hospital contacted Leapfrog organization much less than per week earlier than the grades have been set to be published to dispute their score, the company stated. because of this, Leapfrog stated the health center is chargeable for its own middling grade, but supplied to help Saint Anthony in submitting future surveys to make certain the statistics is accurate.

The lawsuit, Leapfrog said, is the sanatorium's "eleventh hour gambit to show back the clock on a disappointing protection grade."

Critics of Leapfrog's safety grades have puzzled its reliance on self-reported protection information. A college of Michigan study found that hospitals that self-mentioned compliance with Leapfrog's protocols did now not always have lower medical institution-received infection fees or lower federal readmission penalties.