Map showing hospitals that received Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades

UPMC Chautauqua has received an “A” Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade for Spring 2022. This national distinction recognizes these hospital’s achievements in protecting patients from preventable harm and error in the hospital.

UPMC Chautauqua President Brian Durniok said this was a great achievement for the 17 UPMC hospitals that received the “A” designation, “The fact that it’s by an independent watchdog organization that measures over 30 different things around quality and safety is a great endorsement of the care we’re giving at the hospital. And it really recognizes the efforts by our staff and our physicians on a daily basis to make sure we give the best care possible to our patients so we’re incredibly proud of achieving this.”

Durniok said the hospital began work in 2019 to improve their safety grade, including ensuring consistent tactics for every patient, “And the way we know that is we measure virtually everything we do. So we know if we have infections, we know if we have a patient fall, knowing what that data is then let’s us employ different strategies to resolve those things and hard wire tactics that will prevent those things from occurring. And that’s what our team did.”

Durniok said adding staff such as a full-time pulmonologist in the ICU and a full-time pharmacy technician in the emergency department have also helped.

UPMC Chautauqua is only one of two hospitals in Western New York that achieved the “A” Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade. The other hospital was located in Buffalo.