Georgia Hospital Safety Grades Released For Fall 2018

ATLANTA, GA — Twenty-six Georgia hospitals received an A grade in hospital safety, according to new Fall 2018 ratings released by the Leapfrog Group on Thursday. The nonprofit group found that of the more than 2,600 hospitals graded in the country, 32 percent earned an A grade.

Another 17 Georgia hospitals received a B grade, while 23 received a C, and nine were given a D grade. No hospitals in the state received an F grade.

The Leapfrog Group explains that its rating system is focused entirely on errors, accidents, injuries and infections. The hospital safety grades are released by the nonprofit group twice a year, in the spring and in the fall.

New Jersey, Oregon, Virginia, Massachusetts and Texas had the highest percentage of hospitals that received an A grade. The states with the lowest percentage of hospitals that received an A grade are Connecticut, Nebraska, Washington D.C., Delaware and North Dakota, according to Leapfrog. Washington D.C., Delaware and North Dakota did not have a single hospital that received an A grade.

Here are the grades Georgia hospitals were given by the Leapfrog Group:

A grades

• Cartersville Medical Center, Cartersville
• Coffee Regional Medical Center, Douglas
• Coliseum Medical Centers, Macon
• Coliseum Northside Hospital, Macon
• Colquitt Regional Medical Center, Moultrie
• Eastside Medical Center, Snellville
• Emory St. Joseph's Hospital, Atlanta
• Fairview Park Hospital, Dublin
• Gordon Hospital, Calhoun
• Meadows Regional Medical Center, Vidalia
• Perry Hospital, Perry
• Phoebe Sumter Medical Center, Americus
• Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center, Athens
• Piedmont Columbus Regional Northside, Columbus
• Piedmont Hospital, Atlanta
• Piedmont Mountainside Hospital, Jasper
• Piedmont Newnan Hospital, Newnan
• Piedmont Newton Hospital, Covington
• Redmond Regional Medical Center, Rome
• Tanner Medical Center of Carrollton, Carrollton
• Tift Regional Medical Center, Tifton
• Union General Hospital, Blairsville
• University Hospital, Augusta
• Wellstar Douglas Hospital, Douglasville
• Wellstar Kennestone Hospital, Marietta
• Wellstar West Georgia Medical Center, Lagrange

B grades

• Candler Hospital, Savannah
• Emory University Hospital, Atlanta
• Floyd Medical Center, Rome
• Houston Medical Center, Warner Robins
• Memorial Health University Medical Center, Savannah
• Memorial Satilla Health, Waycross
• Northeast Georgia Medical Center, Gainesville
• Northside Forsyth Hospital, Cumming
• Northside Hospital Cherokee, Canton
• Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, Albany
• Piedmont Columbus Regional Midtown, Columbus
• Piedmont Fayette Hospital, Fayetteville
• Southeast Georgia Health System - Camden Campus, St. Marys
• St. Joseph's Hospital, Savannah
• Stephens County Hospital, Toccoa
• Wellstar Cobb Hospital, Austell
• Wellstar Paulding Hospital, Hiram

C grades

• Augusta University Medical Center, Augusta
• Crisp Regional Hospital, Cordele
• East Georgia Regional Medical Center, Statesboro
• Emory Decatur Hospital, Decatur
• Emory University Hospital Midtown, Atlanta
• Gwinnett Medical Center - Duluth, Duluth
• Gwinnett Medical Center Lawrenceville, Lawrenceville
• Habersham Medical Center, Demorest
• Hamilton Medical Center, Dalton
• Memorial Hospital and Manor, Bainbridge
• Navicent Health Baldwin, Milledgeville
• North Fulton Hospital, Roswell
• Northside Hospital, Atlanta
• Piedmont Henry Hospital, Stockbridge
• Piedmont Rockdale Hospital, Conyers
• South Georgia Medical Center, Valdosta
• Southeast Georgia Health System - Brunswick Campus, Brunswick
• Southern Regional Medical Center, Riverdale
• St. Francis Health, LLC, Columbus
• St. Mary's Health Care System, Inc., Athens
• The Medical Center, Navicent Health, Macon
• Upson Regional Medical Center, Thomaston
• WellStar Spalding Regional Hospital, Griffin

D grades

• Atlanta Medical Center, Atlanta
• Atlanta Medical Center South Campus, East Point
• Doctors Hospital of Augusta, Augusta
• Emory Hillandale Hospital, Lithonia
• Emory Johns Creek Hospital, Johns Creek
• Grady Memorial Hospital Corporation, Atlanta
• John D. Archbold Memorial Hospital, Thomasville
• Piedmont Walton, Monroe
• St. Mary's Sacred Heart Hospital, Lavonia

SEE ALSO:

• Georgia's Best Hospitals: New U.S. News Rankings Released
• Best Hospitals In Georgia — And Worst — For Patient Safety

(For more news like this, find your local Patch here. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here. And like Patch on Facebook!)

"Health care was an important issue in the 2018 midterm elections, yet both parties are still neglecting the third leading cause of death in America—errors and infections in hospitals," Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, said in a press release. "Every elected official, from city councilors, to senators, to the President, should hold hospitals accountable and support efforts to improve patient safety."

Leapfrog assigns A,B,C,D and F letter grades to general acute-care hospitals in the United States. Leapfrog explains that the safety grade includes 28 measures that are taken together to "produce a single letter grade representing a hospital's overall performance in keeping patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors."

The group uses performance measures from a variety of sources, including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Leapfrog Hospital Survey and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (You can read more about the letter grades here.)

Image via Shutterstock