Connecticut Hospital Safety Grades Released

The Hospital Safety Score, which is a public service provided by The Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit organization “committed to driving quality, safety, and transparency in the U.S. health system,” has handed out its latest hospital safety grades for the fall of 2016.

The Hospital Safety Score examines how well each hospital does at keeping its patients safe from errors, injuries, accidents and infections. Information is compiled from surveys, public data and information from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

It assigned scores to more than 2,500 hospitals nationwide, including 27 hospitals in Connecticut.

The top hospitals, according to the Hospital Safety Score, are found in Hawaii (No. 1), Idaho (No. 2) , Maine (No. 3), Wisconsin (No. 4) and North Carolina (No. 5).

Connecticut was all the way down at No. 36 on the list, which is based on which states had the highest percentage of “A”-ranked hospitals in its state. But there is some good news, as Connecticut was ranked No. 41 for hospital safety in the spring of 2016, and we’ve moved up five spots.

In Connecticut, six of the state’s 27 hospitals earned an “A” safety ratings score. This, too, is an improvement over the spring, when just four of the 25 surveyed hospitals received an “A” safety rating score.

The Hospital Safety Score includes 30 measures, all currently in use by national measurement and reporting programs, according to its website.

Hospital breakdowns including patient injuries, accidents and infections result in the death of 200 million Americans each year, according to Leapfrog officials.

Leapfrog President and CEO Leah Binder said in a statement that, “In the fast-changing healthcare landscape, patients should be aware that hospitals are not all equally competent at protecting them from injuries and infections.

"We believe everyone has the right to know which hospitals are the safest and encourage community members to call on their local hospitals to change, and on their elected officials to spur them to action. States that have put a priority on safety have shown remarkable improvements,” Binder said.

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According to the Hospital Safety Score, the following are the top-ranked hospitals in Connecticut based on safety scores. Click on the hyperlink for each one to learn in depth why each hospital received the grade it did.

A
Griffin Hospital in Derby

Stamford Hospital in Stamford

Greenwich Hospital in Greenwich

University of Connecticut Health Center, John Dempsey Hospital in Farmington

St. Francis Hospital & Medical Center in Hartford

Sharon Hospital in Sharon

B
The William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich

Day Kimball Hospital in Putnam

Charlotte Hungerford Hospital in Torrington

Middlesex Hospital in Middletown

Bristol Hospital in Bristol

St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport

C

Yale-New Haven Saint Raphael Campus in New Haven

Waterbury Hospital in Waterbury

Johnson Memorial Medical Center in Stafford Springs

Bridgeport Hospital in Bridgeport

Rockville General Hospital in Vernon Rockville

Mid State Medical Center in Meriden

Milford Hospital in Milford

Yale-New Haven Hospital in New Haven

Windham Hospital in Willimantic

Hartford Hospital in Hartford

The Hospital of Central Connecticut in New Britain

Norwalk Hospital in Norwalk

D

Manchester Memorial Hospital in Manchester

Danbury Hospital in Danbury

Saint Mary’s Hospital in Waterbury

Click here to go directly to the Hospital Safety Score website.

*New Milford Hospital was not listed. Lawrence & Memorial Hospital in New London also was not listed. The website stated that if a hospital is not listed because:

"Unfortunately, our experts sometimes do not have enough information to issue a fair Safety Score for every hospital. Certain hospitals are exempt from the requirement to publicly report on safety. Additionally, many hospitals are not able to provide data to the federal government because they are too small, or for other reasons Leapfrog experts are studying ways to score them in the future."

Patch file photo