Virginia’s Safest Hospitals: Latest Rankings Released For Fall

VIRGINIA — Some Virginia hospitals have made improvements in protecting patients from preventable errors, accidents, injuries and infections while others have fallen short, according to the Fall 2022 Hospital Safety Grades report released Wednesday.

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 more than 30 measures of patient safety. 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.

In Virginia, 37 hospitals received an A, 22 hospitals received a B, 11 hospitals received a C and one hospital received a D grade. No Virginia hospitals received an F.

Here are the ratings, according to Leapfrog:

A

• Winchester Medical Center, Winchester
• Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, Norfolk
• Parham Doctors' Hospital, Richmond
• Augusta Health, Fishersville
• Novant Health UVA Health System Culpeper Medical Center, Culpeper
• John Randolph Medical Center, Hopewell
• Warren Memorial Hospital, Front Royal
• Riverside Shore Memorial Hospital, Onancock
• Smyth County Community Hospital, Marion
• Inova Alexandria Hospital, Alexandria
• Carilion New River Valley Medical Center, Christiansburg
• Inova Loudoun Hospital, Leesburg
• Sentara Obici Hospital, Suffolk
• UVA Prince William Medical Center, Manassas
• Sentara Leigh Hospital, Norfolk
• LewisGale Medical Center, Salem
• Virginia Hospital Center, Arlington
• Clinch Valley Medical Center, Richlands
• Inova Fairfax Hospital, Falls Church
• Sentara Williamsburg Regional Medical Center, Williamsburg
• Retreat Doctors' Hospital, Richmond
• Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital, Charlottesville
• VCU Health Tappahannock Hospital, Tappahannock
• Sentara CarePlex Hospital, Hampton
• Bon Secours Richmond Community Hospital, Richmond
• Inova Fair Oaks Hospital, Fairfax
• Reston Hospital Center, Reston
• LewisGale Hospital - Montgomery, Blacksburg
• Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center, Woodbridge
• Twin County Regional Healthcare, Galax
• LewisGale Hospital - Pulaski, Pulaski
• Henrico Doctors' Hospital, Richmond
• Inova Mount Vernon Hospital, Alexandria
• LewisGale Hospital - Alleghany, Low Moor
• Buchanan General Hospital, Grundy
• Riverside Walter Reed Hospital, Gloucester
• UVA Haymarket Medical Center, Haymarket

B

• Russell County Hospital, Lebanon
• University of Virginia Medical Center, Charlottesville
• Sentara Halifax Regional Hospital, South Boston
• Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center, Portsmouth
• Centra Virginia Baptist Hospital, Lynchburg
• CJW Medical Center - Johnston-Willis Campus, Richmond
• Bon Secours Mary Immaculate Hospital, Newport News
• Riverside Regional Medical Center, Newport News
• Bon Secours St. Mary's Hospital of Richmond, Richmond
• Bon Secours Memorial Regional Medical Center, Mechanicsville
• Centra Bedford Memorial Hospital, Bedford
• Carilion Franklin Memorial Hospital, Rocky Mount
• Centra Southside Community Hospital, Farmville
• Centra Lynchburg General Hospital, Lynchburg
• Wythe County Community Hospital, Wytheville
• CJW Medical Center - Chippenham Campus, Richmond
• Sentara Princess Anne Hospital, Virginia Beach
• Chesapeake Regional Medical Center, Chesapeake
• Bon Secours St. Francis Medical Center, Midlothian
• Stafford Hospital, Stafford
• Riverside Doctors' Hospital Williamsburg, Williamsburg
• StoneSprings Hospital Center, Dulles

C

• Sentara RMH Medical Center, Harrisonburg
• Mary Washington Hospital, Fredericksburg
• Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, Roanoke
• Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center, Fredericksburg
• Johnston Memorial Hospital, Abingdon
• Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital, Virginia Beach
• Southside Regional Medical Center, Petersburg
• Danville Regional Medical Center, Danville
• Sovah Health Martinsville, Martinsville
• Southampton Memorial Hospital, Franklin
• VCU Health Community Memorial Hospital, South Hill

D

• Fauquier Hospital, Warrenton

With the release of its fall report, The Leapfrog Group has analyzed hospital safety data for a decade. Most hospitals have improved over time under more public scrutiny, Leapfrog Group President and CEO Leah Binder said in a news release.

“For a long time, the health care community tried to improve safety, but progress stalled,” Binder said. “The big difference over this decade is that for the first time, we publicly reported each hospital’s record on patient safety, and that galvanized the kind of change we all hoped for.

“It’s not enough change, but we are on the right track,” she said.

Notably, hospitals reduced what are called “never events” — accidents and errors that never should have happened, the release said. Incidents of falls and trauma and incidents in which objects were unintentionally left in a patient’s body during surgery were down 25 percent, the watchdog group said.

Also, according to the report, progress on the number of patients treated for health care-associated infections declined to pre-pandemic levels.

Nearly two dozen hospitals have received straight-A reports every year since the Leapfrog Group began its safety grades in 2012. They are:

• Arizona: Mayo Clinic Hospital, Phoenix
• California: French Hospital Medical Center, San Luis Obispo; Kaiser Permanente Orange County-Anaheim Medical Center, Anaheim; Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center, San Luis Obispo
• Colorado: Rose Medical Center, Denver
• Florida: AdventHealth Daytona Beach, Daytona Beach.
• Illinois: Elmhurst Memorial Hospital, Elmhurst; Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital, Winfield; University of Chicago Medical Center, Chicago
• Massachusetts: Beverly Hospital, Beverly; Saint Anne's Hospital, Fall River
• Michigan: University of Michigan Health, Ann Arbor
• Mississippi: Baptist Memorial Hospital Golden Triangle, Columbus
• North Carolina: Rex Hospital, Inc., Raleigh
• Ohio: OhioHealth Dublin Methodist Hospital, Dublin;OhioHealth Grady Memorial Hospital, Delaware
• Texas: St. David's Medical Center, Austin,
• Virginia: Inova Loudoun Hospital, Leesburg; Sentara CarePlex Hospital, Hampton; Sentara Leigh Hospital, Norfolk, Virginia; Sentara Williamsburg Regional Medical Center, Williamsburg
• Washington: Virginia Mason Medical Center, Seattle

Search for your hospital’s fall 2022 safety grade and read more about the methodology.