Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford Awarded Coveted 2013 Leapfrog Top Children’s Hospital Distinction

For Release: December 3, 2013

STANFORD, Calif. - The Leapfrog Group has named Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford to its annual list of Top Hospitals. The announcement is being made at the Leapfrog Annual Meeting on December 3 in Arlington, Va., which gathers key decision-makers from Leapfrog's network of purchaser members, industry partners, health care stakeholders and national collaborators. Packard Children’s Hospital is the only children’s hospital in Northern California to receive the prestigious award.

“This is a wonderful honor that we share with our entire staff and medical staff at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford and Stanford Medicine,” said Christopher G. Dawes, president and chief executive officer. “We thank the Leapfrog Group for recognizing our network-wide commitment to quality and patient safety.”

Chief Clinical Patient Safety Officer Paul Sharek, MD, MPH, said the award acknowledges the hospital’s continued excellence and international thought leadership in reducing medical and health system errors. “The Leapfrog award is a highly respected recognition that our quality of care and patient safety outcomes continue to be among the nation’s best,” Sharek said.

Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital was selected as a Top Children’s Hospital out of a record number of 1,324 hospitals participating in The Leapfrog Group’s annual survey. Hospitals reaching this achievement include academic medical centers, teaching hospitals, children’s hospitals, and community hospitals in rural, suburban and urban settings. The selection is based on measurements of a hospital’s performance on patient safety and quality, focusing on critical areas of hospital care in place to prevent errors. The results of the survey are posted at http://www.leapfroggroup.org/cp and are open to patients and families, the public, employers and other purchasers of health care.

“By achieving the Top Children’s Hospital accolade, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital has demonstrated exemplary performance across all areas of quality and patient safety that are analyzed on the Leapfrog Hospital Survey,” said Leah Binder, president & chief executive officer of The Leapfrog Group.

Hospitals with high quality scores have demonstrated strict adherence to Leapfrog’s quality and safety standards. The Leapfrog website provides specific details about these calculations at www.leapfroggroup.org/competitivebenchmarking.

"From the executives to the physicians to the staff, everyone at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and Stanford Medicine relentlessly pursues perfect quality and safety outcomes every day,” said Sharek, who is also medical director of the hospital’s Center for Quality and Clinical Effectiveness and an associate professor of pediatrics at the Stanford School of Medicine.

The Leapfrog Top Children’s Hospital honor builds on a year of significant awards and recognition for Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, including distinction as a Top Performer on Key Quality Measures from The Joint Commission, the leading accreditor of health care organizations in America, and the highest rankings of any children’s hospital in Northern California in the U.S. News & World Report Best Children’s Hospitals 2013-2014 survey.

A complete list of 2013 Leapfrog Top Hospitals will be available at www.leapfroggroup.org on December 3, 2013 at 12:01 a.m. ET. Media can obtain an advance copy by contacting Stephanie Heckman at leapfrogmedia@sternassociates.com or at 908-276-4344 x502.