PA Hospital Safety Grades 2019: The Best And The Worst

More than a third of hospitals in Pennsylvania received an A grade for safety, according to new Spring 2019 ratings released by the Leapfrog Group on Wednesday.

The hospital safety grades are released by the nonprofit group twice a year, in the spring and in the fall. The ratings of more than 2,600 hospitals across the country focus entirely on errors, accidents, injuries and infections.

In Pennsylvania:

• 44 hospitals received an A grade (50 in Fall 2018)
• 37 hospitals received a B grade (27 in Fall 2018)
• 41 hosptials received a C grade (46 in Fall 2018)
• 6 hospitals received a D grade (8 in Fall 2018)
• 0 hospitals received an F grade (0 in Fall 2018)

(See detailed list below)

Oregon, Virginia, Maine, Massachusetts and Virginia had the highest percentage of hospitals that received an A grade. Four states — Wyoming, Arkansas, Delaware, North Dakota — and the District of Columbia did not have a single hospital that received an A grade.

Overall, Pennsylvania ranked 18th on the list, a slight drop from its Fall 2018 ranking at 14th.

For this round of rankings, the Leapfrog Group’s research found that patients at hospitals that receive “D” or “F” grades face a 92 percent greater risk of avoidable death compared to “A” hospitals. At “C” and “B” hospitals, patients on average face an 88 percent and a 35 percent greater risk respectively.

Here is the Leapfrog Group's Fall 2018 grades for hospitals in Pennsylvania:

A

Abington Health Lansdale Hospital

Abington Memorial Hospital

Chambersburg Hospital

Chester County Hospital

DLP Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center

Doylestown Hospital

Geinsenger Bloomsburg Hospital

Geisenger Lewistown Hospital

Geinsenger Wyoming Valley Medical Center

Grand View Health

Heritage Valley Sewickley

Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania

Jeanes Hospital

Lancaster General Hospital

Latrobe Hospital

Lehigh Valley Hospital - Cedar Crest

Lehigh Valley Hospital - Hazelton

Lehigh Valley Hospital - Muhlenberg

Lehigh Valley Hospital - Pocono

Meadville Medical Center

Penn State Milton S. Hershey Center

Punxsutawney Area Hospital

Reading Hospital

St. Clair Hospital

St. Luke's Hospital - Anderson Campus

St. Luke's Hospital - Miners

St. Luke's Hospital - Monroe

St. Luke's University Hospital - Bethlehem

UPMC Altoona

UPMC Bedford

UPMC Carlisle

UPMC Community

UPMC Hamot

UPMC Harrisburg

UPMC Horizon - Greenville

UPMC Horizon - Shenango Valley

UPMC McKeesport

UPMC Northwest

UPMC Passavant

UPMC Passvant - Cranberry

UPMC Presbyterian

UPMC St. Maraget

UPMC West Shore

B

Bradford Regional Medical Center

Bryn Mawr Hospital

Canonsburg General Hospital

Clarion Hospital

Delaware COunty Memorial Hospital

Easton Hospital

Geisinger Community Medical Center

Geisenger Medical Center

Grove City Medical Center

Hahnemann University Hospital

Heritage Valley Beaver

Indiana Regional Medical Center

J.C. Blair Memorial Hospital

Jefferson Torresdale

Jennersville Hospital

Lower Bucks Hospital

Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital

Mercy Health System - Nazareth

Mercy Philadelphia Hospital

Monongahela Valley Hospital

Penn Presbyterian Medical Center

Pennsylvania Hospital

Sharon Regional Medical Center

St. Luke's Hospital - Allentown

St. Luke's Quakertown Hospital

Suburban Community Hospital

Thomas Jefferson University Hospital

Thomast Jefferson University Hospital - Methodist

Uniontown Hospital

UPMC East

UPMC Mercy

UPMC Pinnacle Lititz

UPMC Pinnacle Memorial

UPMC Shadyside

Washington Hospital

Wayne Memorial Hospital

Westmoreland Hospital

C

ACMH Hospital

Brandywine Hospital

Butler Memorial Hospital

Chan Soon-Shiong Medical Center at Windber

Crozer Chester Medical Center

Einstein Medical Center Montgomery

Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia

Forbes Hospital

Geisenger Holy Spirit Hospital

Geisenger Shamokin Area Hospital

Holy Redeemer Hospital and Medical Center

Jefferson Bucks

Jefferson Frankford

Jefferson Regional Medical Center

Lankenau Medical Center

Lehigh Valley Hospital -Schuylkill

Mount Nittany Medical Center

Ohio Valley General Hospital

Paoli Hospital

Penn Highlands Clearfield

Phoenixville Hospital

Pottstown Hospital

Regional Hospital of Scranton

Riddle Hospital

Springfield Hospital

St. Joseph Regional Health Network

St. Luke's Sacred Heart Campus

St. Mary Medical Center

Taylor Hospital

Temple University Hospital

UPMC Jameson

UPMC Pinnacle Hanover

UPMC Somerset

UPMC Susquehanna - Williamsport

Warren General Hospital

WellSpan Ephrata Community Hospital

WellSpan Gettysburg Hospital

WellSpan Good Samaritan Hospital

WellSpan York Hospital

West Penn Hospital

Wilkes-Barre General Hospital

D

Allegheny General Hospital

Allegheny Valley Hospital

Einstein Medical Center Elkins Park

Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital

Moses Taylor Hospital

Saint Vincent Hospital

The group estimates that if the risk at all hospitals was equivalent to what it is at “A” hospitals, 50,000 lives would have been saved. Overall, the researchers estimate that 160,000 lives are lost every year due to avoidable medical errors. That figure is down from 2016, when the Leapfrog Group estimated there were 205,000 avoidable deaths.

“The good news is that tens of thousands of lives have been saved because of progress on patient safety. The bad news is that there’s still a lot of needless death and harm in American hospitals,” Leah Binder, president and CEO of the Leapfrog Group, said in a press release. “Hospitals don’t all have the same track record, so it really matters which hospital people choose, which is the purpose of our Hospital Safety Grade.”

Leapfrog assigns A,B,C,D and F letter grades to general acute-care hospitals in the United States. Leapfrog explains that the safety grade includes 28 measures that are taken together to “produce a single letter grade representing a hospital’s overall performance in keeping patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors.” The group uses performance measures from a variety of sources, including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Leapfrog Hospital Survey and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (You can read more about the letter grades here.)