Maryland Falters in State’s First Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades

October 31, 2017

The Leapfrog Group announced today the Fall 2017 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades, assigning A, B, C, D and F letter grades to more than 2,600 U.S. hospitals based on medical errors, accidents, injuries and infections. For the first time, Maryland hospitals were included in the Leapfrog Safety Grades. Maryland hospitals - which previously had been the only hospitals exempt from public reporting at the national level due to a federal waiver – performed poorly in their first grading, ranking Maryland among the bottom 10 states.

Of the 44 hospitals graded in Maryland, 2.3%  just one hospital, Howard County General Hospital in Columbia earned an “A,” compared with 31.6% of hospitals graded nationally. 15.9% earned a “B” compared with 25.2% nationally, 61.4% earned a “C” compared to 36.6% nationally, 18.2% earned a “D” compared to 6.0% nationally, and 2.3% (one hospital) earned an “F” compared to 0.6% nationally. This puts Maryland near the bottom of Leapfrog’s bi-annual state rankings analysis, in which states are ranked according to the percentage of “A” hospitals.

“Errors and infections in hospitals are the third leading cause of death in America, and Maryland residents deserve to know which of their hospitals are best at preventing them,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of Leapfrog.

Additional findings for the Maryland region include:

  • In Baltimore, of the 13 hospitals graded, zero earned an “A,” three a “B,” seven a “C,” two a “D” and one an “F”
  • No hospitals in Washington D.C. earned an “A.” Just one received a “B,” one a “C,” three a “D” and two an “F.” D.C. also falls to the bottom of Leapfrog’s state ranking analysis
  • By contrast, Virginia ranked among the top the five states this fall. Of the 68 hospitals that received a Grade, 60.3% of those received an “A”, 22.1% received a “B”, 17.6% received a “C” and no hospitals within the state received a “D” or “F” grade

Binder continued, “We commend the Maryland Health Care Commission for their leadership, which was instrumental in getting Leapfrog the data needed to issue these grades. As a Maryland resident myself, I appreciate this level of transparency.”

Since 2012, Leapfrog has issued Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades on a bi-annual basis nationally. To support Leapfrog’s nationwide transparency effort, the Maryland Health Care Commission generated individual measure results for Maryland hospitals. This was done in accordance with the specifications used by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for hospitals nationwide, resulting in Maryland Safety Grades being reported this fall.

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is calculated by top patient safety experts, peer reviewed, fully transparent and free to the public. For more information about the Safety Grade, as well as individual hospital grades and state rankings please visit www.hospitalsafetygrade.org and follow the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade on Twitter and Facebook. Journalists interested in additional trend analyses and scheduling an interview should contact LeapfrogMediaGroup@sternstrategy.com.

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