Inova Fair Oaks Hospital Awarded Elite Distinction as a 2012 Leapfrog Top Hospital

FAIRFAX, VA – (December 6, 2012) – The Leapfrog Group’s annual list of Top Hospital was announced on December 4th in Baltimore, Maryland and included Inova Fair Oaks Hospital in Fairfax, Virginia for the first time.  The announcement came at Leapfrog’s Annual Meeting, focusing on transparency as the key to improved hospital safety, and Top Hospital Awards.

“Our goal is to provide safe and reliable care to each person we are privileged to serve.  The entire Inova Fair Oaks Hospital team works to achieve this goal. The Leapfrog Top Hospital distinction is a testament to our efforts to achieve this [goal] and the optimal clinical outcomes.  Safe and reliable care is our number one priority,” said John Fitzgerald, CEO of Inova Fair Oaks Hospital.

“The Leapfrog Top Hospital distinction is by far the most competitive award a hospital can receive.  Leapfrog holds hospitals to the highest standards on behalf of our purchaser members and their employees. By achieving the Top Hospital accolade, Inova Fair Oaks Hospital has demonstrated exemplary performance across all areas of quality and patient safety that are analyzed on the Leapfrog Hospital Survey. This hospital stands out as one consistently providing safe, high quality care, and I would be comfortable sending my family to Inova Fair Oaks Hospital for care,” said Leah Binder, President & CEO of The Leapfrog Group.

Inova Fair Oaks Hospital was selected as a Top Hospital out of nearly 1200 hospitals participating in The Leapfrog Group’s annual survey.  This year, the Top Rural Hospital list includes a record 11 hospitals.  Other 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 the results of the Leapfrog Group’s annual hospital survey, which measures hospitals’ performance on patient safety and quality, focusing on three critical areas of hospital care: how patients fare, resource use, and management structures in place to prevent errors.  The results of the survey are posted on a website (http://www.leapfroggroup.org/cp) open to patients and families, the public, employers, and other purchasers of healthcare.

As a 2012 Top Hospital, Inova Fair Oaks Hospital met the Leapfrog standards for safe, high quality care outlined in The Leapfrog Group Top Hospital Methodology.

Press inquiries: Amy Richards, 703-391-3390

About The Leapfrog Group
The Leapfrog Group (www.leapfroggroup.org) is a national organization using the collective leverage of large purchasers of health care to initiate breakthrough improvements in the safety, quality, and affordability of health care for Americans. The flagship Leapfrog Hospital Survey allows purchasers to structure their contracts and purchasing to reward the highest performing hospitals. The Leapfrog Group was founded in November 2000 with support from the Business Roundtable and national funders, and is now independently operated with support from its purchaser and other members.

About Inova
Inova is a not-for-profit health care system located in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, serving over two million people with over 1,700 licensed beds based in Northern Virginia.  Inova consists of five hospitals including the area’s only Level 1 Trauma Center and Level 3 Neonatal Intensive Care unit.  Inova encompasses many health services including the nationally and internationally recognized Inova Heart and Vascular Institute (IHVI), Inova Translational Medicine Institute (ITMI) on genomics, Inova Neuroscience Institute and Inova Children’s Hospital.  Inova’s mission is to improve the health of the diverse community it serves through excellence in patient care, education and research.  More information and statistics about Inova is at www.inova.org.

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