Best And Worst MD Hospital Safety Grades 2020: Report
MARYLAND — Several hospitals in Maryland received top grades for safety, while others didn’t quite measure up, according to new spring 2020 ratings released by the Leapfrog Group recently.
Safety grades are released by the nonprofit organization twice per year, in the spring and the fall. The ratings of more than 2,600 hospitals focus on accidents, injuries and infections, and help to assess how well a facility prevents medical errors and other harm to patients.
It’s worth noting the metrics used to determine this spring’s hospital grades originated from safety data reported for periods ending in 2018 and 2019. The report does not take into account the strain the new coronavirus outbreak is placing on some hospitals where staff are experiencing shortages of drugs and protection equipment.
In Maryland:
12 hospitals received an A grade.
15 hospitals received a B grade.
14 hospitals received a C grade.
2 hospitals received a D grade.
1 hospital received an F grade.
(See detailed list below)
The latest grades show 33 percent of hospitals nationwide earned an “A” grade while 25 percent earned a “B.” Some 35 percent earned a “C” grade, 7 percent a “D” and less than 1 percent received an “F” grade.
Here are the Leapfrog Group's spring 2020 grades for hospitals in Maryland:
Grade "A"
Anne Arundel Medical Center, Annapolis
Garrett Regional Medical Center, Oakland
Greater Baltimore Medical Center, Baltimore
Holy Cross Germantown Hospital, Germantown
Howard County General Hospital, Columbia
Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Baltimore
MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital, Baltimore
MedStar St. Mary's Hospital, Leonardtown
Suburban Hospital, Bethesda
UM Baltimore Washington Medical Center, Glen Burnie
University of Maryland Medical Center Midtown Campus, Baltimore
Grade "B"
Adventist HealthCare White Oak Medical Center, Silver Spring
Atlantic General Hospital, Berlin
Carroll Hospital Center, Westminster
Doctors Community Hospital, Lanham
Holy Cross Hospital, Silver Spring
MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center, Baltimor
Mercy Medical Center, Baltimore
Peninsula Regional Medical Center, Salisbury
St. Agnes Hospital, Baltimore
The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore
University of Maryland Charles Regional Medical Center, La Plata
University of Maryland Shore Medical Center at Chestertown, Chestertown
University of Maryland Shore Medical Center at Dorchester, Cambridge
University of Maryland Shore Medical Center at Easton, Easton
Grade "C"
Adventist HealthCare Fort Washington Medical Center, Fort Washington
CalvertHealth Medical Center, Prince Frederick
Frederick Health Hospital, Frederick
MedStar Harbor Hospital, Baltimore
MedStar Union Memorial Hospital, Baltimore
Meritus Medical Center, Hagerstown
Northwest Hospital, Randallstown
Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, Baltimore
Union Hospital, Elkton
University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore
University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Medical Center, Bel Air
UPMC Western Maryland, Cumberland
Grade "D"
UM Harford Memorial Hospital, Havre De Grace
University of Maryland Prince George's Hospital Center, Cheverly
Grade "F"
Bon Secours Hospital, Baltimore
To determine each state’s grade, Leapfrog used up to 28 national performance measures from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Leapfrog Hospital Survey and information from other supplemental data sources. When averaged, performance measures produce a single letter grade representing a hospital’s overall performance in keeping patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors.
The goal of the Hospital Safety Grade is to reduce deaths caused by hospital errors and injuries.
Leapfrog estimates that if the risk at all hospitals was equivalent to what it is at "A" hospitals, 50,000 lives at other facilities 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.
For a full description of the methodology, go here.
This article originally appeared on the Annapolis Patch