How Safe Are Delaware County's Hospitals? New Grades Released

Which Delaware County hospitals are the safest? New grades released Wednesday by The Leapfrog Group can tell us.

The Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit founded by employers and healthcare providers, ranked the six hospitals in Delaware County as part of its Spring 2017 hospital safety grades.

The hospitals were giving a letter grade from A through F based on several factors, including medical errors, accidents, injuries and infections. The goal is to determine what a patient's risk of further injury or infection is if they visit a certain hospital.

One of the six — Delaware County Memorial Hospital in Drexel Hill — received an A. The lowest-ranked Delaware County hospitals were Springfield Hospital in Springfield and Taylor Hospital in Ridley Park, both of which earned "C" grades.

Riddle Hospital in Media, Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital in Darby, and Crozer Chester Medical Center in Upland all earned "B" grades.

The organization graded 132 Pennsylvania hospitals. Of them, 23.5 percent received an A. Click here to see the full list of grades for all Pennsylvania hospitals.

According to the organization, more than 1,000 Americans die each day from preventable hospital errors. Hospitals given a B rating by Leapfrog had a 9 percent higher risk of avoidable death than A hospitals. That number jumps to 35 percent in C hospitals and 50 percent higher in D and F hospitals.

At the state level, Pennsylvania was ranked 34th in the nation, down one slot from spring 2016. Maine was ranked No. 1. Hawaii, Oregon, Wisconsin and Idaho rounded out the top five.

Here's how the Delaware County hospitals did. Click here to see more detail on each hospital's grade.

Patch file photo