Hospital Safety Rankings: Northside-Forsyth Gets a 'B'

CUMMING, GA -- Northside Hospital-Forsyth has been ranked as one of metro Atlanta's safest, according to new rankings released Monday by The Leapfrog Group.

The hospital, in Cumming, received a "B" rating in the Spring 2016 hospital safety rankings, a measure of how safe a hospital is for patients.

Emory University Hospital was ranked Atlanta's safest, and was the only hospital in the metro area to receive an "A" rating.

Hospitals were given a letter grade from A through F based on several factors. Of the 2,571 hospitals studied nationwide, 798 earned an A, 639 earned a B, 957 earned a C, 162 earned a D and 15 earned an F.

Leapfrog looked at medical errors, accidents, injuries and infections to determine the grades. The goal was to determine a patient's risk of further injury or infection if they visited a certain hospital.

Hospitals given a B rating by Leapfrog had a 9 percent higher risk of avoidable death than A hospitals. That number jumps to 35 percent in C hospitals and 50 percent higher in D and F hospitals.

Here's how the rest of metro Atlanta's hospitals fared:

• Emory Universty Hospital -- A
• Northside Hospital -- B
• North Fulton Hospital, Roswell -- B
• Cartersville Medical Center -- B
• Wellstar Kennestone, Marietta -- B
• Wellstar Paulding -- B
• Wellstar Douglas -- B
• Wellstar Cobb Austell -- C
• Emory Johns Creek -- C
• Gwinnett Medical Center -- C
• Gwinnett Medical Center, Lawrenceville -- C
• Eastside Medical Center, Snellville -- C
• Northside Hospital Cherokee -- C
• Emory St. Joseph's -- C
• Piedmont Hospital -- C
• Atlanta Medical Center -- C
• Emory University Hospital Midtown -- C
• Atlanta Medical Center South Campus -- C
• Grady Memorial -- D
• DeKalb Medical Center -- D
• DeKalb Medical at Hillandale -- D

Leapfrog also conducted an analysis with researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine's Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality. They estimated that 206,021 avoidable deaths occur each year in U.S. hospitals.

At the state level, Vermont was ranked No. 1 on their state safety rankings list. Six hospitals in the state were ranked, and five were given an A grade. Maine, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Minnesota rounded out the top five.

State rankings were based on a percentage of state hospitals receiving an A grade.

• See the full list of hospital safety scores here.

The analysis estimates that 33,459 lives could be saved if every hospital improved their safety record to A standards. Still, the study estimates 43,903 avoidable deaths in A hospitals each year.

Leapfrog releases its rankings twice a year.

“It is time for every hospital in America to put patient safety at the top of their priority list, because tens of thousands of lives are stake,” Leapfrog President Leah Binder said in a press release. “The Hospital Safety Score alerts consumers to the dangers, but as this analysis shows, even A hospitals are not perfectly safe.”