Arlington Heights Area Hospitals Earn 'A' Safety Grade: Report

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL — For over two decades, The Leapfrog Group has collected, analyzed, and published hospital data on safety and quality "in order to push the health care industry forward," according to the nonprofit. Every year, Leapfrog uses an academic grading scale with five letter grades to score nearly 3,000 hospitals nationwide on how well they prevent medical errors, accidents and infections.

With that, Leapfrog released its data of Illinois hospitals, grading 109 hospitals in the state as part of its Fall 2023 Hospital Safety Grades Report. The report, released Monday, gave 27 Illinois hospitals the gold-standard "A" safety grade. Another 24 earned a "B," 50 earned a "C" and eight earned a "D." No Illinois hospitals received an F. The Leapfrog Group grades hospitals twice a year.

Among the Arlington Heights area hospitals receiving an "A" grade are Northwest Community Hospital (Arlington Heights) and Ascension Alexian Brothers (Elk Grove Village). Both hospitals also earned an "A" grade in 2022.

Here is a further breakdown of areas each hospital performed better than average:

Northwest Community Hospital

Hospital Performs Better Than Average

• surgical site infection after colon surgery (infections category)
• sepsis infection after surgery (infections)
• dangerous object left in patient's body (problems with surgery category)
• surgical wound splits open (problems with surgery)
• death from serious treatable complications (problems with surgery)
• harmful events (safety problems category)
• collapsed lung (safety problems)
• dangerous blood clot (safety problems)
• air or gas bubble in the blood (safety problems)
• doctors order medications through a computer (practice to prevent errors category)
• safe medication administration (practice to prevent errors)
• nursing and bedside care for patients (doctors, nurses and hospital staff category)
• specially trained doctors care for ICU patients (doctors, nurses and hospital staff)

Ascension Alexian Brothers

Hospital Performs Better Than Average

• MRSA infection (infections category)
• C. diff infection (infections)
• infection in the blood (infections)
• dangerous object left in patient's body (problems with surgery category)
• death from serious treatable complications (problems with surgery)
• blood leakage (problems with surgery)
• kidney injury after surgery (problems with surgery)
• falls causing broken hips (safety problems category)
• collapsed lung (safety problems)
• air or gas bubble in the blood (safety problems)
• doctors order medications through a computer (practice to prevent errors category)
• safe medication administration (practice to prevent errors)
• handwashing (practice to prevent)
• staff work together to prevent errors (practice to prevent)
• effective leadership to prevent errors (doctors, nurses and hospital staff category)
• specially trained doctors care for ICU patients (doctors, nurses and hospital staff)