2 Rhode Island Hospitals Ranked In Top 10% For Patient Safety

Two hospitals in Rhode Island were among hundreds across the country recognized for safety and patient experience in a new report.

Healthgrades, an online platform that helps people find and compare doctors, specialists and hospitals, announced Tuesday that 438 hospitals in 40 states met the criteria for its 2026 Patient Safety Excellence Award. They represent the top 10% of hospitals nationwide for patient safety.

See also: 1 RI Hospital Ranked In Top 5% Nationally In New Report

From Rhode Island, they are BrownHealth in Providence and Yale New Haven Health System in Westerly.

BrownHealth performed even better, ranking among the top 5% of hospitals nationwide. It is also one of the 250 best hospitals in America.

See also: Major Changes To Childhood Vaccine Schedule Announced By CDC: What To Know In RI

The Patient Safety Excellence Award is based on an analysis of federal hospital data that evaluates how well hospitals protect patients from serious complications during inpatient care. Healthgrades looked at 13 measures of patient safety, such as infections, surgical complications and other preventable problems.

See also: RI’s Best Hospitals For 2025: See Full List

To qualify for the award, hospitals must meet strict quality standards and show strong performance on most of those safety measures. They also cannot have any reported cases of a foreign object, such as a sponge or surgical tool, being left inside a patient during a procedure. In addition, hospitals must report data on most of the key safety indicators used to evaluate performance.

If all hospitals performed as well as the award winners, 100,819 patient safety events could have been avoided between 2022 and 2024, Healthgrades said in a news release. Patients treated in award-winning facilities were significantly less likely to experience the four most common patient safety accidents and medical errors, which represent a serious, preventable complication and account for 78 percent of all safety events.

See also: RI Nursing Assistant's License Suspended Amid Molestation Accusation

In the award-winning hospitals:

• An in-hospital fall resulting in a fracture was 52.4% less likely
• A collapsed lung due to a procedure or surgery in or around the chest was 57.5% less likely
• A catheter-related bloodstream infection acquired in the hospital was 67.8% less likely
• A pressure or bed sore acquired in the hospital was 71.9% less likely

View the full Patient Safety Excellence Award recipient list and methodology on healthgrades.com.

See also: Here Are The Top 6 Nursing Homes In RI, According To U.S. News & World Report