PA’s Safest Hospitals: Fall 2023 Leapfrog Group Ratings Released

PENNSYLVANIA — Hospitals in Pennsylvania and nationwide made significant improvements in preventing a “disturbing” increase in hospital infections during the coronavirus pandemic, The Leapfrog Group said with the release Monday of its Fall 2023 Hospital Safety Grades Report.

The Leapfrog Group, an independent nonprofit health care watchdog group, used an academic grading scale with five letter grades to score nearly 3,000 hospitals nationwide on how well they prevent medical errors, accidents and infections. Overall, the report shows hospitals significantly reduced infections after the pandemic spike, but patient-reported experiences declined for the second year in a row.

The 10 states with the highest number of “A” hospitals are Utah, Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Connecticut, Montana, Tennessee, Florida and Texas.

Among 127 Pennsylvania hospitals evaluated in the report, 56 received the gold-standard “A” safety grade. Another 36 earned a “B,” 30 earned a “C” and 5 earned a “D.” Zero hospitals received an F.

Pennsylvania hospitals earning “A” grades are:

• St. Luke's Hospital - Allentown Campus
• Geisinger Medical Center
• St. Luke's Upper Bucks Hospital
• Geisinger Lewistown Hospital
• St. Luke's University Hospital - Bethlehem Campus
• Allegheny General Hospital
• UPMC Hamot
• WellSpan Gettysburg Hospital
• UPMC Harrisburg
• UPMC Community
• Holy Redeemer Hospital and Medical Center
• Lancaster General Hospital
• UPMC Memorial
• UPMC St. Margaret
• UPMC Passavant
• Einstein Medical Center Montgomery
• Suburban Community Hospital (improved from a "B" in spring)
• Lehigh Valley Hospital - Cedar Crest
• Wellspan Waynesboro Hospital
• Main Line Health-Bryn Mawr Hospital
• Main Line Health-Paoli Hospital
• St. Luke's Easton Hospital
• UPMC Shadyside
• Main Line Health-Lankenau Medical Center
• St. Luke's Sacred Heart Campus
• Doylestown Hospital
• Main Line Health-Riddle Hospital
• Penn Presbyterian Medical Center
• WellSpan Ephrata Community Hospital (improved from a "B" in spring)
• Jefferson Abington Hospital
• UPMC Hanover (improved from a "B" in spring)
• Roxborough Memorial Hospital (improved from a "C" in spring)
• St. Luke's Hospital - Anderson Campus
• St. Luke's Monroe Campus
• Geisinger St. Luke's Hospital
• Lehigh Valley Hospital-Hecktown Oaks
• UPMC Passavant - Cranberry
• Washington Hospital
• Heritage Valley Sewickley
• UPMC Carlisle (improved from a "C" in spring)
• Butler Memorial Hospital
• UPMC West Shore (improved from a "B" in spring)
• Evangelical Community Hospital (improved from a "B" in spring)
• UPMC Somerset
• UPMC Jameson
• UPMC Presbyterian
• Heritage Valley Beaver
• UPMC Altoona
• Conemaugh Nason Medical Center (improved from a "B" in spring)
• Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital (improved from a "B" in spring)
• Geisinger Shamokin Area Community Hospital (improved from a "B" in spring)
• Wellspan Good Samaritan Hospital
• UPMC Bedford (improved from a "B" in spring)
• Forbes Hospital
• Saint Vincent Hospital
• UPMC Williamsport (improved from a "B" in spring)

The Leapfrog Group grades hospitals twice a year. In the fall report, the first report using post-pandemic data, 30 percent of hospitals nationwide earned an “A,” 24 percent earned a “B,” 39 percent earned a “C,” 7 percent earned a “D,” and fewer than 1 percent earned an “F.”

States that had no “A” hospitals are Vermont, Wyoming, Delaware and North Dakota, as well as Washington, D.C.

More than 85 percent of hospitals saw decreases in the three most dangerous infections — MRSA, central-line bloodstream infections and catheter-associated urinary tract infections.

• 19 percent improved in all three infection measures;
• 66 percent improved in at least one infection measure;
• 16 percent continued to worsen or did not improve.

“Now that we have pre- and post-pandemic data for patient safety measures, we are encouraged by the improvement in infections and applaud hospitals for reversing the disturbing infection spike we saw during the pandemic,” Leapfrog president and CEO Leah Binder said in a news release.

However, Binder said the continued decline in patient experiences is “deeply concerning.” Hospitals in all states have seen a significant decline in reported patient experiences since the fall of 2021, the report said.

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.