Leapfrog Group names Wolfson Children’s Hospital as one of 10 Top Children’s Hospitals in the nation

The Leapfrog Group, an independent hospital watchdog organization, named Wolfson Children's Hospital of Jacksonville as a 2019 Top Children's Hospital. The hospital is one of only 10 in the country and three in the state to earn this award.

Michael D. Aubin, FACHE, Wolfson Children’s Hospital president, said, “We consider it our privilege to care for our region’s children. In order to earn the trust of families, we continually strive to improve our care. We measure the quality of our hospital care in a wide variety of ways — and we often rank as one of the top hospitals in the country, including the Leapfrog Top Children’s Hospital award. We don’t seek these rankings or quality awards for the recognition. We do it to make our care better and better. Children’s hospitals learn from each other, which leads to improving processes and programs. That’s good for kids.”

He added, “Thanks to our strong partnerships with Nemours Children’s Specialty Care and the University of Florida (UF) College of Medicine – Jacksonville, we are able to provide some of the best pediatric care in the nation.”

“Wolfson Children’s Hospital recognition by The Leapfrog Group as one of the top 10 children’s hospitals validates what those of us at Wolfson already know,” said Mark Hudak, MD, chair of the Department of Pediatrics for the UF College of Medicine – Jacksonville. “When families enter Wolfson’s doors, the entire team of staff and caregivers works hard to provide the highest quality of safe care and to achieve the best outcomes for our children. We at the University of Florida College of Medicine – Jacksonville value our opportunity to work with Wolfson leadership and staff and our colleagues at Nemours and in the community to provide excellent care for children, to train the next generation of pediatric physicians, and to contribute to advances in medical care.”

Gary Josephson, MD, chief medical officer of Nemours Children’s Specialty Care, Jacksonville, said: “This acknowledgment by the Leapfrog Group is a wonderful honor and testament to the great work done by Wolfson Children’s Hospital for the children and families we serve. Nemours Children’s Specialty Care’s long-standing partnership with Wolfson Children’s Hospital has always been focused around safe practices, innovative, high-quality care, and superb outcomes. We are proud of this relationship and it shows by the positive impact made on children’s health locally, regionally and nationally. This award is an inspiration to all our teams that the hard work done every day is appreciated, recognized and serves as the highest standard of care,”

The Leapfrog Group considered about 2,100 hospitals for Top Hospital awards. Among those, Wolfson Children’s Hospital received a Top Children’s Hospital distinction. A total of 118 hospitals were selected as Top Hospitals, including:

• 10 Top Children’s Hospitals
• 310 Top General Hospitals (Baptist Medical Center Nassau achieved
  this honor, along with an “A” Hospital Safety Grade, also from The
  Leapfrog Group.)
• 18 Top Rural Hospitals
• 56 Top Teaching Hospitals

Performance across many areas of hospital care is considered in establishing the qualifications for the award, including infection rates, practices for safer surgery, maternity care, and the hospital’s capacity to prevent medication errors. The rigorous standards are defined in each year’s Top Hospital Methodology.

To qualify for the Top Hospitals distinction, hospitals must rank top among peers in the 2019 Leapfrog Hospital Survey, which assesses hospital performance on the highest known standards for quality and patient safety, and achieve top performance in its category. To see the full list of institutions honored as 2019 Top Hospitals, visit leapfroggroup.org/tophospitals.

Wolfson Children’s Hospital is committed to providing safe, quality health care to children. In addition to being named as a 2019 Leapfrog Group Top Hospital, Wolfson Children’s is a three-time Magnet® designated hospital, a designation from the American Nurses Credentialing Center that recognized excellence in patient care, and is named among the 2019-2020 U.S News & World Report Best Children’s Hospitals.

Services provided at Wolfson Children’s Hospital are provided primarily by pediatric physician specialists with Nemours Children’s Specialty Care, Jacksonville, University of Florida College of Medicine – Jacksonville and Emergency Resources Group.