PA Hospital Safety Grades 2022: The Best And The Worst

PENNSYLVANIA — Several hospitals in Pennsylvania received top marks, but others didn’t quite measure up in the Spring 2022 Hospital Safety Grades report released Tuesday by The Leapfrog Group, an independent nonprofit health care watchdog group.

The latest ratings reflect care during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic reversed years of progress in patient safety, according to research from The Leapfrog Group.

The pandemic has had a negative effect on “health care delivery at every level and setting, from staffing shortages to increased infections to the very care patients receive,” according to the Adult Patient Experience at Acute Care Hospitals survey, also released Tuesday by The Leapfrog Group.

“The health care workforce has faced unprecedented levels of pressure during the pandemic, and as a result, patients' experience with their care appears to have suffered,” Leapfrog Group president and CEO Leah Binder said in a news release. “We commend the workforce for their heroic efforts these past few years and now strongly urge hospital leadership to recommit to improved care — from communication to responsiveness — and get back on track with patient safety outcomes.”

In Pennsylvania, 62 hospitals received an "A" grade, 38 hospitals received a "B" grade, 29 hospitals received a "C" grade, and 7 hospitals received a "D" grade. X hospitals received an "F" grade.

Here are the rankings, according to Leapfrog:

A

• Allegheny General, Pittsburgh
• Bryn Mawr Hospital, Bryn Mawr
• Butler Memorial Hosptial, Butler
• Chester County Hospital, West Chester
• Conemaugh Nason Medical Center, Roaring Spring
• Doylestown Hospital, Doylestown
• Einstein Medical Center Montgomery, East Norriton
• Geisinger Bloomsburg Hospital, Bloomsburg
• Geisinger Lewistown Hospital
• Geisinger Medical Center
• Geisinger Shamokin Area Community Hospital
• Geisinger St. Luke's Hospital
• Heritage Valley Sewickley
• Holy Redeemer Hospital and Medical Center
• Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
• Indiana Regional Medical Center
• Jefferson Abington Hospital
• Lancaster General Hospital
• Latrobe Hospital
• Lehigh Valley Hospital - Hazleton
• Lehigh Valley Hospital - Pocono
• Lower Bucks Hospital
• Paoli Hospital
• Penn Presbyterian Medical Center
• Penn State Health
• Holy Spirit Medical Center
• Pennsylvania Hospital
• Riddle Hospital
• Saint Vincent Hospital
• St. Clair Hospital
• St. Luke's Hospital - Allentown Campus
• St. Luke's Hospital - Anderson Campus
• St. Luke's Hospital - Miners Campus
• St. Luke's Monroe Campus
• St. Luke's Sacred Heart Campus
• St. Luke's University Hospital - Bethlehem Campus
• St. Luke's Upper Bucks Hospital
• Temple University Hospital - Main Campus
• UPMC Altoona
• UPMC Bedford Memorial
• UPMC East
• UPMC Hamot
• UPMC Harrisburg
• UPMC Horizon - Shenango Valley Campus
• UPMC Memorial Hospital
• UPMC Northwest
• UPMC Passavant
• UPMC Passavant - Cranberry
• UPMC Pinnacle Lititz
• UPMC Presbyterian
• UPMC Shadyside
• UPMC Somerset
• UPMC St. Margaret
• UPMC Susquehanna - Williamsport
• Washington Health System Greene
• Washington Hospital
• Chambersburg Hospital WellSpan
• Ephrata Community Hospital Wellspan
• Good Samaritan Hospital Wellspan
• Waynesboro Hospital WellSpan
• York Hospital Wellspan
• Westmoreland Hospital

B

• AHN Grove City, Grove City
• Bradford Regional Medical Center, Bradford
• Forbes Hospital, Monroeville
• Canonsburg General Hospital, Canonsburg
• Clarion Hospital, Clarion
• Einstein Medical Center Elkins Park, Elkins Park
• Geisinger Community Medical Center, Scranton
• Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center
• Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital
• Heritage Valley Beaver
• Jefferson Bucks
• Jefferson Frankford
• Jefferson Lansdale Hospital
• Jefferson Regional Medical Center
• Jefferson Torresdale
• Lankenau Medical Center
• Lehigh Valley Hospital - Cedar Crest
• Lehigh Valley Hospital - Muhlenberg
• Meadville Medical Center
• Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital
• Moses Taylor Hospital
• Penn Highlands Clearfield
• Penn Highlands DuBois
• Reading Hospital
• Regional Hospital of Scranton
• Roxborough Memorial Hospital
• St. Luke's Easton Hospital
• Suburban Community Hospital
• Temple University Hospital Jeanes Campus
• Thomas Jefferson University Hospital
• Thomas Jefferson University Hospital - Methodist Hospital Campus
• UPMC Community
• UPMC Jameson
• UPMC McKeesport UPMC Mercy
• UPMC Pinnacle Hanover
• UPMC West Shore
• WellSpan Gettysburg Hospital
• West Penn Hospital

C

• ACMH Hospital, Kittaning
• Excela Health Frick Hospital, Mt. Pleasant
• Evangelical Community Hospital, Lewisburg
• Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia, Philadelphia
• Allgheny Valley, Natrona Heights
• Chan Soon-Shiong Medical Center at Windber, Windbier
• Chestnut Hill Hospital, Philadelphia
• Delaware County Memorial Hospital, Drexel Hill
• Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia
• Evangelical Community Hospital
• Excela Health
• Frick Hospital
• Grand View Health
• Lehigh Valley Hospital - Schuylkill
• Monongahela Valley Hospital
• Mount Nittany Medical Center
• Nazareth Hospital
• Penn Highlands Huntingdon
• Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
• Penn State Health St. Joseph Medical Center
• Pottstown Hospital
• Punxsutawney Area Hospital
• Sharon Regional Medical Center
• St. Mary Medical Center
• Uniontown Hospital
• UPMC Carlisle
• UPMC Susquehanna Lock Haven
• Warren General Hospital
• Wayne Memorial Hospital
• Wilkes-Barre General Hospital

D

• Crozer Chester Medical Center, Upland
• DLP Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center, Johnstown
• Heritage Valley Kennedy
• Millcreek Community Hospital
• Phoenixville Hospital
• Springfield Hospital
• Taylor Hospital

The letter grades assigned to nearly 3,000 U.S general hospitals were based 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, accidents, injuries and infections.

Included in the 30 are five that research has shown to directly affect patient outcomes, but can be improved with greater communication between caregivers and patients — the number of central line-associated bloodstream infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, infections from colon surgery, MRSA (Staphylococcus) blood laboratory-identified events, and facility-wide inpatient diarrhea events.

When there’s communication about medications, for example, that can lead to fewer hospitalizations for conditions such as sepsis and blood clots, fewer complications, and decreases in the incidence of respiratory failure, Leapfrog said.

Among the findings:

• Thirty-three percent of hospitals received an “A,” 24 percent received a “B,” 36 percent received a “C,” 7 percent received a “D.” and fewer than 1 percent received an “F”.
• The states with the highest percentages of “A” hospitals are North Carolina, Virginia, Utah, Colorado and Michigan.
• There were no “A” hospitals in Wyoming, West Virginia, North Dakota or the District of Columbia.

To determine each hospital’s grade, a panel of medical experts selected 30 evidence-based measures of patient safety such as postoperative sepsis, blood leakage and kidney injury. They then determined the weight of each measure based on evidence, opportunity for improvement and patient impact.

Data on each measure was collected through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Information from the Leapfrog Hospital Survey, available to all hospitals to complete, also affects grades.

Currently, Leapfrog does not assign grades to military or Veterans Administration hospitals, critical access hospitals, specialty hospitals, children’s hospitals or outpatient surgery centers.

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade methodology has been peer-reviewed and published in the Journal of Patient Safety.

The full methodology for the 2022 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is available online.