How Safe Are Tampa Bay Hospitals?

While none of the Tampa Bay area’s hospitals earned a failing grade for patient safety, a few of the region’s largest healthcare providers didn’t exactly make the honor roll either.

That’s according to the Washington, D.C.-based Leapfrog Group, which just released its latest Hospital Safety Score report. The report, produced twice yearly, analyzes medical facilities across the country to determine which ones rank the best in procedures meant to ensure patient well-being during their stays.

The “Hospital Safety Score grades hospitals on how safe they keep their patients from errors, injuries, accidents and infections,” the group’s website states. The group derives its scores using a number of sources and assigns grades twice yearly to more than 2,500 hospitals across the country, including 163 in Florida.

“The Hospital Safety Score uses national performance measures from the Leapfrog Hospital Survey, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and the American Hospital Association’s Annual Survey and Health Information Technology Supplement,” the group explains.

While all hospitals ranked by the Leapfrog Group in the Tampa Bay area earned passing grades, some of the region’s biggest providers only squeaked by. They include Tampa General Hospital, Sarasota Memorial Hospital and Bayfront Health St. Petersburg, among others.

The latest Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Hospital Compare list was also recently released. This ranking helps determine Medicare reimbursement rates. Those rankings are based on patient surveys and a number of other factors. To read how the Bay area fared in that report, read “Tampa Bay Area Hospitals Ranked First to Worst.”

Here’s how Tampa Bay area hospitals covered in the Leapfrog patient safety report stacked up:

• South Florida Baptist Hospital, Plant City, A Grade
• Florida Hospital Zephyrhills, B Grade
• Brandon Regional Hospital, A Grade
• South Bay Hospital, Sun City Center, A Grade
• Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel, A Grade
• Doctors Hospital of Sarasota, A Grade
• Florida Hospital Tampa, B Grade
• Tampa General Hospital, C Grade
• Sarasota Memorial Hospital, C Grade
• Memorial Hospital of Tampa, A Grade
• St. Joseph’s Hospital, Tampa, B Grade
• Florida Hospital Carrollwood, A Grade
• St. Joseph’s Hospital North, Lutz, B Grade
• Tampa Community Hospital, C Grade
• Blake Medical Center, B Grade
• Bayfront Health St. Petersburg, C Grade
• St. Anthony’s Hospital, St. Petersburg, C Grade
• Medical Center of Trinity, A Grade
• Northside Hospital, St. Petersburg, A Grade
• Mease Countryside Hospital, Safety Harbor, B Grade
• Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point, A Grade
• St. Petersburg General Hospital, B Grade
• Palms of Pasadena Hospital, St. Petersburg, C Grade
• Morton Plant North Bay Hospital, C Grade
• Florida Hospital North Pinellas, Tarpon Springs, A Grade
• Mease Dunedin Hospital, B Grade
• Largo Medical Center, B Grade
• Morton Plant Hospital, Clearwater, A Grade
• Largo Medical Center, A Grade

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