States that are shown in a darker green have a higher percentage of “A” hospitals. Does your state make the grade? Hospitals across the country show a lot of variation when it comes to patient safety.

Hospital safety breakdowns, including patient injuries, accidents and infections, kill over 200,000 Americans each year, making these errors the third leading cause of death in the U.S. But not all hospitals are alike. The Leapfrog Group today announced its Fall 2016 release of the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, a program which assigns A, B, C, D and F letter grades to more than 2,600 U.S. hospitals bi-annually and is the gold standard measure of patient safety in the United States. Of the 2,633 hospitals evaluated, 844 earned an “A,” 658 earned a “B,” 954 earned a “C,” 157 earned a “D” and 20 earned an “F.”

When ranked by percentage of hospitals earning an “A,” several states stood out for significant improvements over time. North Carolina has climbed from number 19 in the country in the Spring 2013 Safety Grade to number five in the Fall 2016 Safety Grade. Idaho has also made continuous strides, moving from number 45 in Spring 2013 to number two in Fall 2016.

Other states with notable improvements include Utah, ranked number six in the Fall 2016 Safety Grade, and Vermont, ranked number eight. For the first time, the top ranked state is Hawaii, while the bottom-ranked states, each with no “A” hospitals, are Alaska, Delaware and North Dakota, along with Washington, D.C.

Here, states are ranked based on the number of “A” hospitals they have compared to the total number of hospitals that operate in that state.

Search for individual hospitals here.

Note: Maryland is not ranked because hospitals are not required to publicly report their hospital safety data.

 

Rank State Total #
Hospitals Scored		 Total #
A Hospitals		 % A
Hospitals
1 Hawaii 12 8 66.7%
2 Idaho 11 7 63.6%
3 Maine 16 10 62.5%
4 Wisconsin 57 35 61.4%
5 North Carolina 78 43 55.1%
6 Utah 23 12 52.2%
7 Massachusetts 60 31 51.7%
8 Vermont 6 3 50.0%
9 Oregon 33 16 48.5%
10 Virginia 66 31 47.0%
11 Minnesota 36 16 44.4%
12 Kansas 32 14 43.8%
13 Mississippi 37 15 40.5%
14 Rhode Island 10 4 40.0%
15 Illinois 113 45 39.8%
16 Ohio 110 43 39.1%
17 Texas 212 78 36.8%
17 New Jersey 68 25 36.8%
19 Michigan 79 29 36.7%
20 South Carolina 47 16 34.0%
21 Montana 9 3 33.3%
21 New Hampshire 12 4 33.3%
23 Colorado 43 14 32.6%
24 Tennessee 66 21 31.8%
25 Louisiana 49 15 30.6%
26 California 267 81 30.3%
27 Missouri 59 17 28.8%
28 Alabama 53 15 28.3%
29 Iowa 32 9 28.1%
30 Wyoming 8 2 25.0%
31 Pennsylvania 131 32 24.4%
32 Florida 173 42 24.3%
33 Indiana 63 15 23.8%
34 Nebraska 17 4 23.5%
35 Kentucky 52 12 23.1%
36 South Dakota 9 2 22.2%
36 Georgia 72 16 22.2%
36 Connecticut 27 6 22.2%
39 Oklahoma 39 8 20.5%
40 Washington 46 9 19.6%
41 Arkansas 28 5 17.9%
42 Arizona 49 8 16.3%
43 Nevada 20 3 15.0%
44 New Mexico 16 2 12.5%
45 West Virginia 25 3 12.0%
46 New York 138 15 10.9%
47 Alaska 5 0 0.0%
47 Delaware 6 0 0.0%
47 District of Columbia 7 0 0.0%
47 North Dakota 6 0 0.0%

 

 

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