Georgia Hospital Safety Grades 2022: The Best And Worst

GEORGIA — Nineteen hospitals in Georgia received top marks for patient safety, but others didn’t quite measure up in the Spring 2022 Hospital Safety Grades report released Tuesday by The Leapfrog Group, an independent nonprofit health care watchdog group.

The 2022 ratings reflect care during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Leapfrog Group said its and other groups’ research showed the pandemic reversed years of progress in patient safety.

The pandemic has had a negative effect on “health care delivery at every level and setting, from staffing shortages to increased infections to the very care patients receive,” according to the Adult Patient Experience at Acute Care Hospitals survey, also released Tuesday by The Leapfrog Group.

“The health care workforce has faced unprecedented levels of pressure during the pandemic, and as a result, patients' experience with their care appears to have suffered,” Leapfrog Group president and CEO Leah Binder said in a news release. “We commend the workforce for their heroic efforts these past few years and now strongly urge hospital leadership to recommit to improved care — from communication to responsiveness — and get back on track with patient safety outcomes.”

In Georgia, 19 hospitals received an "A" grade, 24 hospitals received a "B" grade, 37 hospitals received a "C" grade and four hospitals received a "D" grade. No Georgia hospital received an "F" grade.

Here are the rankings, according to Leapfrog:

A

• East Georgia Regional Medical Center, Statesboro
• Emanuel Medical Center, Swainsboro
• Emory Johns Creek Hospital, Johns Creek
• Fairview Park Hospital, Dublin
• Floyd Medical Center, Rome
• Grady General Hospital, Cairo
• Memorial Satilla Health, Waycross
• Perry Hospital, Perry
• Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, Albany
• Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center, Athens
• Piedmont Columbus Regional Northside, Columbus
• Piedmont Macon Medical Center, Macon
• Piedmont Macon North Hospital, Macon
• Piedmont Mountainside Hospital, Jasper
• Piedmont Newnan Hospital, Newnan
• Southeast Georgia Health System - Camden Campus, St. Marys
• University Hospital, Augusta
• University Hospital Summerville, Augusta
• Wellstar Paulding Hospital, Hiram

B

• AdventHealth Gordon, Calhoun
• AdventHealth Redmond, Rome
• Atrium Health Navicent Baldwin, Milledgeville
• Coffee Regional Medical Center, Douglas
• Colquitt Regional Medical Center, Moultrie
• Doctors Hospital of Augusta, Augusta
• Dorminy Medical Center, Fitzgerald
• Emory Hillandale Hospital, Lithonia
• Emory St. Joseph's Hospital, Atlanta
• Memorial Health University Medical Center, Savannah
• Memorial Hospital and Manor, Bainbridge
• Phoebe Sumter Medical Center, Americus
• Piedmont Cartersville Medical Center, Cartersville
• Piedmont Columbus Regional Midtown, Columbus
• Piedmont Eastside Medical Center, Snellville
• Piedmont Fayette Hospital, Fayetteville
• Piedmont Hospital, Atlanta
• Piedmont Rockdale Hospital, Conyers
• St. Mary's Sacred Heart Hospital, Lavonia
• Tift Regional Medical Center, Tifton
• Upson Regional Medical Center, Thomaston
• Wellstar Cobb Hospital, Austell
• Wellstar Douglas Hospital, Douglasville
• Wellstar Kennestone Hospital, Marietta

C

• Atrium Health Navicent, Medical Center, Macon
• Augusta University Medical Center, Augusta
• Candler Hospital, Savannah
• Crisp Regional Hospital, Cordele
• Emory Decatur Hospital, Decatur
• Emory University Hospital, Atlanta
• Emory University Hospital Midtown, Atlanta
• Fannin Regional Hospital, Blue Ridge
• Habersham Medical Center, Demorest
• Hamilton Medical Center, Dalton
• Houston Medical Center, Warner Robins
• John D. Archbold Memorial Hospital, Thomasville
• Memorial Health Meadows Hospital, Vidalia
• North Fulton Hospital, Roswell
• Northeast Georgia Medical Center, Gainesville
• Northeast Georgia Medical Center Barrow, Winder
• Northeast Georgia Medical Center Braselton, Braselton
• Northside Hospital Atlanta, Atlanta
• Northside Hospital Cherokee, Canton
• Northside Hospital Forsyth, Cumming
• Piedmont Henry Hospital, Stockbridge
• Piedmont Newton Hospital, Covington
• Piedmont Walton, Monroe
• South Georgia Medical Center, Valdosta
• Southeast Georgia Health System - Brunswick Campus, Brunswick
• Southern Regional Medical Center, Riverdale
• St. Francis-Emory Healthcare, Columbus
• St. Joseph's Hospital, Savannah
• St. Mary's Health Care System, Inc., Athens
• Stephens County Hospital, Toccoa
• Tanner Medical Center of Carrollton, Carrollton
• Tanner Medical Center of Villa Rica, Villa Rica
• Union General Hospital, Blairsville
• Wayne Memorial Hospital, Jesup
• Wellstar Atlanta Medical Center Downtown, Atlanta
• WellStar Spalding Regional Hospital, Griffin
• Wellstar West Georgia Medical Center, Lagrange

D

• Atlanta Medical Center South Campus, East Point
• Grady Memorial Hospital Corporation, Atlanta
• Northside Hospital Duluth, Duluth
• Northside Hospital Gwinnett, Lawrenceville

F

• No Georgia hospitals received an F grade.

The letter grades assigned to nearly 3,000 U.S general hospitals were based on more than 30 measures of patient safety. Leapfrog says its hospital rating system is the only one in the country focusing solely on a hospital’s ability to protect patients from preventable errors, accidents, injuries and infections.

Included in the 30 are five that research has shown to directly affect patient outcomes, but can be improved with greater communication between caregivers and patients — the number of central line-associated bloodstream infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, infections from colon surgery, MRSA (Staphylococcus) blood laboratory-identified events, and facility-wide inpatient diarrhea events.

When there’s communication about medications, for example, that can lead to fewer hospitalizations for conditions such as sepsis and blood clots, fewer complications, and decreases in the incidence of respiratory failure, Leapfrog said.

Among the findings:

• Thirty-three percent of hospitals received an “A,” 24 percent received a “B,” 36 percent received a “C,” 7 percent received a “D.” and fewer than 1 percent received an “F”.
• The states with the highest percentages of “A” hospitals are North Carolina, Virginia, Utah, Colorado and Michigan.
• There were no “A” hospitals in Wyoming, West Virginia, North Dakota or the District of Columbia.

To determine each hospital’s grade, a panel of medical experts selected 30 evidence-based measures of patient safety such as postoperative sepsis, blood leakage and kidney injury. They then determined the weight of each measure based on evidence, opportunity for improvement and patient impact.

Data on each measure was collected through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Information from the Leapfrog Hospital Survey, available to all hospitals to complete, also affects grades.

Currently, Leapfrog does not assign grades to military or Veterans Administration hospitals, critical access hospitals, specialty hospitals, children’s hospitals or outpatient surgery centers.

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade methodology has been peer-reviewed and published in the Journal of Patient Safety.

The full methodology for the 2022 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is available online.