16 MA Hospitals Get 'A' Rating On New Safety Grades: See Full List

MASSACHUSETTS — Sixteen hospitals in Massachusetts were given top marks in The Leapfrog Group’s fall 2024 hospital safety grades released Friday.

The Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit health care watchdog group that grades hospitals twice a year, assigns letter grades ranging from “A” to “F,” for 3,000 general hospitals on how well they prevent medical errors, accidents and infections.

Overall, hospitals have made great strides since the pandemic years, when the risk of contracting deadly infections was elevated nationwide, but more work needs to be done, the Leapfrog Group said in a news release.

Massachusetts ranked No. 23 among states for the number of hospitals earning the top letter grade. They hospitals that earned an "A" grade are:

• Saint Anne's Hospital, Fall River (no change compared to spring 2024)
• Baystate Wing Hospital, Palmer (no change compared to spring 2024)
• Boston Medical Center (no change compared to spring 2024
• Baystate Noble Hospital, Westfield (no change compared to spring 2024)
• Massachusetts General Hospital (no change compared to spring 2024)
• Milford Regional Medical Center (no change compared to spring 2024)
• Newton-Wellesley Hospital (no change compared to spring 2024)
• Winchester Hospital (no change compared to spring 2024)
• Brigham And Women's Hospital (no change compared to spring 2024)
• Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital (no change compared to spring 2024)
• Sturdy Memorial Hospital, Attleboro (up from B grade in spring 2024)
• St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, Brighton (up from B grade in spring 2024)
• Addison Gilbert Hospital, Gloucester (up from B grade in spring 2024)
• Baystate Franklin Medical Center, Greenfield (up from B grade in spring 2024)
• Cape Cod Hospital, Hyannis (up from B grade in spring 2024)
• Morton Hospital, Taunton (up from B grade in spring 2024)

Massachusetts had 16 hospitals earning an A grade in the fall compared with 15 in the spring. The state was ranked No. 23 in the country in both fall and spring.

Overall, Massachusetts had:

• 20 hospitals that earned “B” grades;
• 13 hospitals that earned “C” grades;
• 4 hospitals that earned “D” grades; and
• Zero hospitals that earned “F” grades.

For the third grading cycle, Utah tops the list with the highest percentage of “A” hospitals, followed, respectively, by Virginia, Connecticut, North Carolina, New Jersey, California, Rhode Island, Idaho, Pennsylvania, Colorado and South Carolina. California ranked in the top 10 for the first time since the fall of 2014.

The fall 2024 ratings show improvement in patient safety across several performance measures, including notable improvements on health care-associated infections, hand hygiene and medication safety. Preventable deaths and harm in hospitals has long been a major policy focus for The Leapfrog Group.

While noting the gains hospitals have made in patient safety have saved “countless lives,” Leapfrog Group president and CEO Leah Binder said in a news release that medical centers nationwide need to accelerate their progress “because no one should have to die from a preventable error in a hospital.”

Binder said significant variation in performance continues across U.S. hospitals. For example, four states — Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Vermont — had no “A” hospitals.

“That’s why it’s so important for people to consult grades when making decisions about seeking care,” Binder said. “All hospitals are not the same.”

Nationally, health care-acquired infections reached their highest peak since 2016 in the fall 2022 safety grades, but they have since declined dramatically, according to the report.

Also, central line-associated bloodstream infections were down 38 percent, catheter-associated urinary tract infections were down 36 and MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) infections decreased by 34 percent.

For more information on the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades, visit HospitalSafetyGrade.org.