Connecticut Hospital Safety Grades 2020: The Best And Worst

CONNECTICUT — Two Connecticut hospitals this month were recognized with a prestigious award from the Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit that publishes data on hospital safety and quality nationwide. The awards come as hospitals around the state and country see their capacities pushed to the brink by the coronavirus.

The William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich was awarded with the Top Hospital designation in the General Hospital category, and MidState Medical Center in Meriden was named a Top Teaching Hospital.

"This is an extraordinary year for all of us, but for hospitals, history broke down doors and barged right in," Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, said in a news release.

To qualify for consideration of the award, hospitals must receive an A grade in the annual Leapfrog Hospital Survey.

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Standards considered in the award include various aspects of patient safety, success of procedures and surgeries, lack of errors in medication, infection rates, and more. View the full methodology online here.

"In the pandemic, we needed our hospitals to save lives, comfort families, and support communities, schools, and the economy. American hospitals were there for us," Binder said. "It is why Leapfrog holds hospitals to high standards; they are so critical to the future of our country in every way imaginable."

Only 105 hospitals nationally received the award. Leapfrog's four categories honored nine children's hospitals, 29 general hospitals, 19 rural hospitals and 48 teaching hospitals.

The latest hospital grades

The Leapfrog Group also recently released its fall 2020 grades for Connecticut hospitals. The organization rates the institutions with a grade of A to F based on their safety standards.

Safety grades are released by the nonprofit organization twice per year, in the spring and the fall. The ratings of more than 2,600 hospitals nationwide focus on accidents, injuries and infections, and help to assess how well a facility prevents medical errors and other harm to patients.

The group determines the hospital grades by looking through safety data reported in 2018 and 2019. The safety grade is the only rating focused entirely on how well hospitals protect patients from preventable errors, accidents, injuries and infections.

The report does not take into account the strain the coronavirus outbreak is placing on some hospitals, with shortages of drugs and protection equipment.

"We see in the news every day the extraordinary courage of clinicians and staff caring for patients stricken by COVID-19," Binder said. "What's less apparent — yet equally laudable — are the untold efforts behind the scenes to protect patients. Hospitals' commitment to the fundamentals have saved lives too, like preventing infection, ensuring universal hand hygiene, and double and triple checking everything to avoid errors. We are grateful for the heroic efforts of hospitals across the Nation and applaud their efforts that are protecting our families."

In Connecticut, seven hospitals received an A grade, five received a B and ten received a C grade. No hospitals received a D or F.

Across the United States, the latest grades show 34 percent of hospitals nationwide earned an A, while 24 percent earned a B. A total of 35 percent earned a C, seven received a D and less than 1 percent received an F.

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Here are the Leapfrog Group's fall 2020 grades for hospitals on Connecticut:

• Charlotte Hungerford Hospital, Torrington — A
• Griffin Hospital, Derby — A
• Middlesex Hospital, Middletown — A
• MidState Medical Center, Meriden — A
• St. Francis Hospital & Medical Center, Hartford — A
• Stamford Health, Stamford — A
• The William W. Backus Hospital, Norwich — A
• Bristol Hospital, Bristol — B
• Hartford Hospital, Hartford — B
• St. Vincent's Medical Center Holdings, Inc, DBA, Bridgeport — B
• University of Connecticut Health Center, John Dempsey Hospital, Farmington — B
• Windham Community Memorial Hospital, Willimantic — B
• Bridgeport Hospital, Bridgeport — C
• Bridgeport Hospital Milford Campus, Milford — C
• Greenwich Hospital, Greenwich — C
• Lawrence & Memorial Hospital, New London — C
• Norwalk Hospital, Norwalk — C
• Saint Mary's Hospital, Waterbury — C
• Sharon Hospital, Sharon — C
• The Hospital of Central Connecticut, New Britain — C
• Yale-New Haven Hospital, New Haven — C
• Yale-New Haven Hospital Saint Raphael Campus, New Haven — C