The descriptions for this measure come from source: www.leapfroggroup.org.

A Never Event is a medical error that should never happen, such as an object left inside a patient or the transfer of a wrong type of blood. Leapfrog utilizes the National Quality Forum's list of serious reportable events in asking hospitals to adopt a Never Events policy.

Leapfrog's Never Events policy asks hospital to commit to four basic acts if a Never Event does occur:

• Apologize to the patient and family,
• Waive all costs related to the event and follow-up care,
• Report the event to an external agency,
• Conduct a root-cause analysis of how and why the event occurred.

The hospital must also make a copy of this policy available to patients. All hospitals should abide by these basic pillars of respect in treating those affected by a Never Event.

About this measure

The hospital fully meets standards if a policy has been implemented that adheres to all of the principles of the Leapfrog Group Policy Statement on Serious Reportable Events/“Never Events.”

Scores are reported as:

1 = Willing to Report
2 = Some Progress
3 = Substantial Progress
4 = Fully Meets the Standard

Note: In this measure, a higher number is better.