Best Hospitals In Georgia — And Worst — For Patient Safety

ATLANTA, GA — A nationwide hospital safety analysis has found that 15 hospitals in Georgia received an "A" grade for preventing medical errors, accidents, injuries and infections, which collectively are the third leading cause of death in America. On the flip side nine Georgia hospitals received a "D" grade.

The Leapfrog Group released its bi-yearly hospital safety grades on Tuesday, finding that hospitals overall have improved in reducing the number of avoidable deaths. The group assessed roughly 2,500 hospitals. Of those, 30 percent earned an "A," 28 percent earned a "B," 35 percent a "C," 6 percent a "D" and 1 percent an "F."

"The national numbers on death and harm in hospitals have alarmed us for decades. What we see in the new round of Safety Grades are signs of many hospitals making significant improvements in their patient safety record," Leah Binder, president and CEO of Leapfrog, said in a release.

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The assessment system assigns school-style letter grades to general acute-care hospitals. The hope is to determine a patient's risk of further injury or infection if they visit a certain hospital.

Here are the full list of hospital grades for Georgia:

• Cartersville Medical Center: A
• Colquitt Regional Medical Center: A
• Fannin Regional Hospital: A
• Gordon Hospital: A
• Houston Medical Center: A
• Meadows Regional Medical Center: A
• Piedmont Fayette Hospital: A
• Piedmont Hospital: A
• Piedmont Mountainside Hospital: A
• Piedmont Newnan Hospital: A
• University Hospital: A
• Upson Regional Medical Center: A
• Wellstar Douglas Hospital: A
• Wellstar Kennestone Hospital: A
• Wellstar Paulding Hospital: A
• Coliseum Medical Centers: B
• Eastside Medical Center: B
• Emory St. Joseph's Hospital: B
• Emory University Hospital: B
• Fairview Park Hospital: B
• Gwinnett Medical Center - Duluth: B
• Gwinnett Medical Center Lawrenceville: B
• Northeast Georgia Medical Center: B
• Northside Hospital: B
• Northside Hospital Cherokee: B
• Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center: B
• Piedmont Newton Hospital: B
• Redmond Regional Medical Center: B
• South Georgia Medical Center: B
• St. Mary's Health Care System, Inc.: B
• Stephens County Hospital: B
• The Medical Center, Navicent Health: B
• Tift Regional Medical Center: B
• Wellstar Cobb Hospital: B
• Augusta University Medical Center: C
• Candler Hospital: C
• Coffee Regional Medical Center: C
• Dekalb Medical Center: C
• Doctors Hospital of Augusta: C
• Emory Johns Creek Hospital: C
• Emory University Hospital Midtown: C
• Floyd Medical Center: C
• Hamilton Medical Center: C
• John D. Archbold Memorial Hospital: C
• Memorial Health Savannah: C
• Memorial Satilla Health: C
• Navicent Health Baldwin: C
• North Fulton Hospital: C
• Northside Forsyth Hospital: C
• Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital: C
• Phoebe Sumter Medical Center: C
• Piedmont Columbus Midtown: C
• Piedmont Henry Hospital: C
• Southeast Georgia Health System - Brunswick Campus: C
• Southeast Georgia Health System - Camden Campus: C
• Southern Regional Medical Center: C
• St. Francis Health, LLC: C
• St. Joseph's Hospital: C
• St. Mary's Sacred Heart Hospital: C
• Tanner Medical Center of Carrollton: C
• WellStar Spalding Regional Hospital: C
• Wellstar West Georgia Medical Center: C
• Atlanta Medical Center: D
• Atlanta Medical Center South Campus: D
• Crisp Regional Hospital: D
• Dekalb Medical at Hillandale: D
• East Georgia Regional Medical Center: D
• Grady Memorial Hospital Corporation: D
• Habersham Medical Center: D
• Piedmont Rockdale Hospital: D
• Piedmont Walton: D

Among the findings nationally, five hospitals that received an "A" grade for the first time this year previously received an "F" grade, the group said, and 46 hospitals earned an "A" for the first time since the grading system began six years ago.

Leapfrog said its analysis showed 89 hospitals that had previously received "D" or "F" ratings had improved to an "A" this year.

Rhode Island, Hawaii, Wisconsin and Idaho all previously ranked near the bottom of the state rankings with low percentages of "A" hospitals, but now all rank in the top 10.

Here are some of the other findings:

• The five states with the highest percentage of "A" hospitals this spring are Hawaii, Idaho, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Virginia
• Ten states have hospitals with "F" grades are California, the District of Columbia, Florida, Iowa, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey and New York

Leapfrog says you shouldn't refuse emergency care because of a bad safety grade. They're meant to be used as a guide for planned events and a research tool for potential emergencies.

Patch reporters Dan Hampton and Feroze Dhanoa contributed to this report.

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