New PA Hospital Safety Ratings: 56 Get 'A' Grade, 8 Get 'D'

PENNSYLVANIA — Numerous Pennsylvania hospitals received top safety marks while others didn’t quite measure up in The Leapfrog Group’s annual spring safety grades.

The nonprofit health care watchdog group grades hospitals twice a year, assigning letter grades from "A" to "F" based on each hospital's ability to protect patients from preventable errors, accidents, injuries and infections.

More than 2,700 general, acute-care U.S. hospitals were assessed for Leapfrog’s Spring Safety Grades. Among those hospitals, 27 have achieved 19 consecutive "A" grades in every biannual grading cycle since Leapfrog launched the safety grades in spring 2012.

In Pennsylvania, 56 hospitals received an "A" grade, 31 hospitals received a "B" grade, 30 hospitals received a "C" grade and eight hospitals received a "D" grade. No Pennsylvania hospitals received an "F" grade.

Here are the rankings, according to Leapfrog:

A

• Abington Memorial Hospital
• Bryn Mawr Hospital
• Butler Memorial Hospital
• Chester County Hospital
• Doylestown Hospital
• Geisinger Bloomsburg Hospital
• Geisinger Lewistown Hospital
• Geisinger Shamokin Area Community Hospital
• Heritage Valley Beaver
• Heritage Valley Sewickley
• Holy Redeemer Hospital and Medical Center
• Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
• Lancaster General Hospital
• Lehigh Valley Hospital - Cedar Crest
• Lehigh Valley Hospital - Hazelton
• Lehigh Valley Hospital - Muhlenberg
• Lehigh Valley Hospital - Pocono
• Meadville Medical Center
• Paoli Hospital
• Penn Presbyterian Medical Center
• Penn State Health Holy Spirit Medical Center
• Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
• Penn State Health St. Joseph Medical Center
• Riddle Hospital
• Saint Vincent Hospital
• Sharon Regional Medical Center
• St. Clair Hospital
• St. Luke's Hospital - Allentown Campus
• St. Luke's Hospital - Anderson Campus
• St. Luke's Monroe Campus
• St. Luke's Quakertown Hospital
• St. Luke's Sacred Heart Campus
• St. Luke's University Hospital - Bethlehem Campus
• St. Mary Medical Center
• Temple University Hospital
• UPMC Altoona
• UPMC Community
• UPMC East
• UPMC Hamot
• UPMC Harrisburg
• UPMC Horizon - Shenango Valley Campus
• UPMC McKeesport
• UPMC Mercy
• UPMC Northwest
• UPMC Passavant
• UPMC Passavant - Cranberry
• UPMC Somerset
• UPMC St. Margaret
• UPMC Susquehanna - Williamsport
• Washington Hospital
• WellSpan Chambersburg Hospital
• WellSpan Ephrata Community Hospital
• WellSpan Gettysburg Hospital
• WellSpan York Hospital
• Westmoreland Hospital

B

• Abington Health Lansdale Hospital
• ACMH Hospital
• Allegheny General Hospital
• Einstein Medical Center Montgomery
• Evangelical Community Hospital
• Forbes Hospital
• Geisinger Community Medical Center
• Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center
• Grand View Health
• Indiana Regional Medical Center
• Jefferson Bucks
• Jefferson Frankford
• Jefferson Regional Medical Center
• Jefferson Torresdale
• Latrobe Hospital
• Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital
• Monongahela Valley Hospital
• Pennsylvania Hospital
• Reading Hospital
• St. Luke's Gnaden Huetten Campus
• Suburban Community Hospital
• Temple University Hospital Jeanes Campus
• Thomas Jefferson University Hospital
• Thomas Jefferson University Hospital - Methodist Hospital Campus
• UPMC Carlisle
• UPMC Pinnacle Lititz
• UPMC Presbyterian
• UPMC West Shore
• Wellspan Good Samaritan Hospital
• West Penn Hospital
• Wilkes-Barre General Hospital

C

• Allegheny Valley Hospital
• Bradford Regional Medical Center
• Canonsburg General Hospital
• Chan Soon-Shiong Medical Center at Windber
• Chestnut Hill Hospital
• Clarion Hospital
• Crozer Chester Medical Center
• Delaware County Memorial Hospital
• DLP Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center
• Einstein Medical Center Elkins Park
• Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia
• Jennersville Hospital
• Lankenau Medical Center
• Lehigh Valley Hospital - Schuylkill
• Lower Bucks Hospital
• Millcreek Community Hospital
• Moses Taylor Hospital
• Mount Nittany Medical Center
• Nazareth Hospital
• Penn Highlands Clearfield
• Penn Highlands DuBois
• Penn Highlands Huntingdon
• Regional Hospital of Scranton
• Springfield Hospital
• St. Luke's Easton Hospital
• Taylor Hospital
• UPMC Jameson
• UPMC Pinnacle Hanover
• UPMC Pinnacle Memorial
• UPMC Shadyside

D

• Brandywine Hospital
• Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital
• Heritage Valley Kennedy
• Phoenixville Hospital
• Pottstown Hospital
• Uniontown Hospital
• Warren General Hospital
• Wayne Memorial Hospital

It’s worth noting the hospitals were graded during a time of extraordinary pressure on the health care system due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"This pandemic emphasized how much we rely on America’s health care workforce," Leapfrog Group President and CEO Leah Binder said in a news release. "Our straight 'A' hospitals remind us how preparedness protected their patients as well as their workforce and created a high level of organizational resilience."

Across all states, highlights of findings from the spring 2021 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade include:

• Thirty-three percent of hospitals received an "A," 24 percent received a "B," 35 percent received a "C," 7 percent received a "D," and less than 1 percent received an "F."
• Five states with the highest percentages of "A" hospitals are Massachusetts, Idaho, Maine, Virginia, and North Carolina.
• There were no "A" hospitals in South Dakota or North Dakota.

To determine each state’s grade, Leapfrog used up to 28 national performance measures from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Leapfrog Hospital Survey and information from other supplemental data sources. When averaged, performance measures produce a single letter grade representing a hospital’s overall performance in keeping patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors.

The goal of the Hospital Safety Grade is to reduce deaths caused by hospital errors and injuries.

Leapfrog estimates that if the risk at all hospitals was equivalent to what it is at "A" hospitals, 50,000 lives at other facilities would have been saved. Overall, the researchers estimate that 160,000 lives are lost every year due to avoidable medical errors. That figure is down from 2016, when the Leapfrog Group estimated there were 205,000 avoidable deaths.

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is peer-reviewed by a panel of national experts, and the Leapfrog Group receives guidance from the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality.