Hospital Safety Grades: The Best — And Worst — In Massachusetts

A nationwide hospital safety analysis has found that 30 hospitals in Massachusetts received an “A” grade for preventing medical errors, accidents, injuries and infections, which collectively are the third leading cause of death in America. The Bay State had one of the highest percentages of "A" hospitals in the country, while there were no hospitals receiving anything lower than a "C."

The Leapfrog Group released it’s 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 nationwide - 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.

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.

Below are the hospitals that received an "A" from Leapfrog. You can see which ones received a "B" or "C" here.

1. Addison Gilbert Hospital, Gloucester
2. Berkshire Medical Hospital, Pittsfield
3. Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Needham
4. Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Plymouth
5. Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Milton
6. Beverly Hospital
7. Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital, Boston
8. Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston
9. Cape Cod Hospital, Hyannis
10. CHA Everett Hospital
11. Charlton Memorial Hospital, Fall River
12. Emerson Hospital, Concord
13. Hallmark Health System Melrose-Wakefield Hospital
14. Heywood Hospital, Gardner
15. Holy Family Hospital, Methuen
16. Holy Family Hospital at Merrimack Valley, Haverhill
17. Holyoke Medical Center
18. Lahey Hospital and Medical Center, Burlington
19. Lawrence General Hospital
20. Leonard Morse Hospital, Natick
21. Massachusetts General Hospital
22. Newton-Wellesely Hospital, Newton
23. Saint Anne's Hospital, Fall River
24. Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital
25. South Shore Hospital, South Weymouth
26. St. Vincent Hospital, Worcester
27. St. Luke's Hospital, New Bedford
28. Sturdy Memorial Hospital, Attleboro
29. Tobey Hospital, Wareham
30. Winchester Hospital

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.

Photo credit: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images