The Leapfrog Group announced this week that eight Maine hospitals, including Lincoln County’s own LincolnHealth, have been named to its 2016 Top Hospital list, which honors the highest performers on the Leapfrog hospital survey. The winning facilities were officially recognized at Leapfrog’s annual meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 6 in Washington, D.C.
The Top Hospital Award is given to teaching, general, rural, and children’s hospitals that publicly report their performance through the Leapfrog Hospital Survey and meet the high standards defined in the Top Hospital methodology. This includes infection rates, maternity care, and a hospital’s ability to prevent medication errors. To see the full list of institutions honored as top hospitals, go to leapfroggroup.org/tophospitals.
Of the eight hospitals that earned the distinction, seven were recognized in the Top Rural Hospital category, including LincolnHealth. One hospital, St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Lewiston, was recognized in the Top General Hospital category. Maine had a higher percentage of top rural hospitals than any other state in the U.S., earning seven of the 21 top designations given out nationwide. This is a remarkable achievement.
“We are extremely proud of our state’s performance on Leapfrog’s hospital survey,” said Michael DeLorenzo, CEO of the Maine Health Management Coalition, who presented the awards in Washington D.C. “Not only did eight of our hospitals achieve top-performer status, but we were also the only state in the country to achieve 100 percent participation in the survey, which we have done for the last six years. We know that making safety, quality of care, and transparency a priority leads to positive change, so we are very proud of Maine’s hospitals’ commitment to this important initiative.”
