New MD Hospital Safety Ratings Released: 2 Get 'D' Grade, 6 Get 'A'

MARYLAND — Several Maryland hospitals received top grades in protecting patient safety for the past year, even as the average risk of contracting deadly infections remained elevated nationwide after spiking to a five-year high during the pandemic.

The spring 2023 hospital safety grades for 35 Maryland hospitals were released Wednesday by The Leapfrog Group, an independent nonprofit health care watchdog.

Maryland kept its overall ranking of 35th from last fall to the current list.

Patient experience measures — like communication from doctors — also declined, according to the report. Leapfrog said the findings should be a wake-up call to hospitals nationwide.

The Leapfrog Group uses an academic grading scale with five letter grades to score nearly 3,000 hospitals nationwide 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.

In Maryland, six hospitals received an A, 13 hospitals received a B, 14 hospitals received a C and two hospitals received a D grade. No hospitals in the state received an F.

Here are the ratings, according to Leapfrog:

A

• University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center, Towson
• The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore
• Adventist HealthCare White Oak Medical Center, Silver Spring
• Luminis Health Anne Arundel Medical Center, Annapolis
• MedStar Union Memorial Hospital, Baltimore
• MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital, Baltimore

B

• University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore
• Mercy Medical Center, Baltimore
• MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center, Baltimore
• Suburban Hospital, Bethesda
• MedStar St. Mary's Hospital, Leonardtown
• Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Baltimore
• MedStar Harbor Hospital, Baltimore
• CalvertHealth Medical Center, Prince Frederick
• Northwest Hospital, Randallstown
• UM Baltimore Washington Medical Center, Glen Burnie
• Luminis Health Doctors Community Medical Center, Lanham
• Adventist HealthCare Fort Washington Medical Center, Fort Washington
• Holy Cross Germantown Hospital, Germantown

C

• Holy Cross Hospital, Silver Spring
• UM Harford Memorial Hospital, Havre de Grace
• Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital, Baltimore
• Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, Baltimore
• MedStar Montgomery Medical Center, Olney
• ChristianaCare - Union Hospital, Elkton
• Carroll Hospital Center, Westminster
• University of Maryland Charles Regional Medical Center, La Plata
• University of Maryland Medical Center Midtown Campus, Baltimore
• Greater Baltimore Medical Center, Towson
• Howard County General Hospital, Columbia
• University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Medical Center, Bel Air
• MedStar Southern Maryland Hospital Center, Clinton
• Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center, Rockville

D

• University of Maryland Capital Region Medical Center, Upper Marlboro
• Frederick Health Hospital, Frederick

F

None

High rates of three health care-associated infections, or HAIs, “should stop hospitals in their tracks,” Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, said in a news release, noting that “infections like these can be life for death for some patients.”

“We recognize the tremendous strain the pandemic put on hospitals and their workforce, but alarming findings like these indicate hospitals must recommit to patient safety and build more resilience,” Binder said.

The problematic infections are Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA; central line-associated bloodstream infections, or CLABSI; and catheter-associated urinary tract infections, or CAUTI. When compared to rankings that covered the period immediately before the COVID-19 outbreak, the analysis found an increased infection ratio for all three infections. The spring 2023 rankings cover late 2021 and 2022.

However, another such infection, Clostridioides difficile, or C.Diff, improved and there was no significant change for surgical site infections post surgery, the report said. The standardized infection ratio used to measure changes in the rates of infections compares the actual number of reported infections to the predicted number at each hospital.

“Not only are HAIs among the leading causes of death in the U.S., they also increase length of hospitalization stays and add to costs,” Binder said. “Our pre-pandemic data showed improved HAI measures, but the spring 2023 Safety Grade data spotlights how hospital responses to the pandemic led to a decline in patient safety and HAI management.”

Patient experience measures included communication with nurses and doctors, staff responsiveness, and communication about medicine and discharge information. Nationally, the average of all five measures declined when compared to pre-pandemic measures, according to the report.