How Safe Are Western Pennsylvania Hospitals? New Grades Released

Which western Pennsylvania 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 medical centers 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.

Here's how western Pennsylvania hospitals were graded:

A

• St. Clair
• UPMC East Campus

B

• UPMC Presbyterian
• Washington

C

• UPMC St. Margaret

• UPMC McKeesport
• UPMC Passavant

• Ohio Valley

• Butler Memorial

• Forbes

• Westmoreland

• Canonsburg General
• Jefferson Regional Medical Center
• Westmoreland

D

• Allegheny General

• West Penn

• Allegheny Valley

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

Written by Kara Seymour, Patch National Staff.

Photo: Patch file.