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The Leapfrog Group is a national non-profit organization founded by leading private healthcare experts and the nation’s top employers. The organization seeks to save lives “by reducing injuries, accidents and preventable medical mistakes and medication errors.” In order to cut down the number of hospital mistakes, the Leapfrog Group conducts an annual survey on hospital performance. The survey gives each participating hospital a score based on the analysis of 26 aspects of public safety data.

The safety criteria are separated into two groups: process/structural measures or outcome measures. A process measure relates to how often a hospital patient receives standard, recommended treatments, e.g. how often surgery patients are given antibiotics within an hour of surgery. Structural measures relate to the hospital environment, e.g. whether the facility uses a computer system to help reduce the chance of a hospital medication error. Outcome measures relate to what happens during a patient’s hospital stay, e.g. if a surgery patient has a foreign object left in his body after the procedure.

A team of healthcare experts examines each facility based on these criteria and ultimately arrive at that location’s Hospital Safety Score. Many of the facilities in the Tampa Bay Area were scored during this process. Their scores for 2010-2011 are as follows.