The Leapfrog Group released its fall 2020 Hospital Safety Grades Dec. 14, assigning "A" through "F" letter grades to more than 2,600 acute care hospitals for patient safety performance.
Six things to know:
1. Leapfrog releases the safety grades every fall and spring. The ratings are based on up to 27 quality measures compiled primarily by The Leapfrog Group and CMS. Areas of measurement include nurse communication, hand hygiene adherence and surgical site infection rates, among others.
2. The data for this safety grades update does not include hospitals' performance during the height of COVID-19, Leapfrog said. This spring's update will be the first to incorporate pandemic response periods.
3. Of the more than 2,600 hospitals graded, 34 percent earned an "A," 24 percent earned a "B," 35 percent earned a "C," 7 percent earned a "D," and less than 1 percent earned an "F."
4. Alaska, South Dakota and North Dakota had no hospitals with "A" grades this fall.
5. The five states with the highest percentage of "A" hospitals were Maine, Idaho, Delaware, Massachusetts and Oregon.
6. Twenty-nine hospitals nationwide have earned an "A" rating in every scoring update since the ranking system's inception in spring 2012.
To view the state rankings for Leapfrog's fall 2020 update, click here.
Becker's has also compiled a list of the 29 hospitals that have received straight-'A's from Leapfrog, along with the 16 hospitals that received an 'F' in this fall's update.