(The Center Square) – South Dakota is one of the worst states for hospital safety, according to a new report.
The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is released biannually by the Leapfrog Group, an independent nonprofit organization promoting health care transparency.
The group examines approximately 3,000 general acute-care hospitals nationwide using 30 national performance measures from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to assign letter grades. It specifically looks at how well hospitals protect patients from preventable medical errors, accidents, injuries and infections.
South Dakota ranked in the bottom ten states, with only 10% of its hospitals receiving an “A” grade for Fall 2022.
Across the U.S., only 30% of hospitals received an “A,” 28% a “B,” 36% received a “C,” 6% a “D,” and 1% received an “F.”
South Dakota placed 44th, performing better than Nebraska, West Virginia, Iowa, Vermont, Washington, D.C., and North Dakota. There were zero “A” hospitals in the District of Columbia, North Dakota, or Vermont, according to the report.
South Dakota’s hospital safety record was unchanged from Spring 2022, showing only 10% of hospitals received “A” grades.
However, there are some healthcare facilities in the state that are doing well.
Three South Dakota hospitals received Patient Safety Excellence Awards this year, which recognizes hospitals in the top 10% for patient safety and the lowest occurrences of preventable patient safety events. Those hospitals are Black Hills Surgical Hospital, Avera Heart Hospital of South Dakota, and Sioux Falls Specialty Hospital.
Also, preventable hospitalizations decreased in South Dakota by 28%, according to a 2021 report by America’s Health Rankings.
The Leapfrog Group examines hospitals based on process measures, representing how often a hospital gives patients recommended treatment, structural measures – which look at the environment where patients are receiving care – and outcome measures.
It does not currently assign grades to military or VA hospitals, critical access hospitals, specialty hospitals, children’s hospitals, or outpatient surgery centers.
Top states in the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade were New Hampshire, which jumped from 25th during the spring to the top spot this fall, Virginia, and Utah.
