Forty percent of U.S. hospitals were graded as mediocre or failing in a report released Wednesday.
The latest hospital ratings by the Leapfrog Group, which is part of the conservative Business Roundtable, underline ongoing concerns about hospital-acquired infections, which kill 75,000 patients a year and are estimated to cost $36 billion.
The group assigned more than 2,500 hospitals a single grade based on 28 different measures having to do with sterilization practices, surgical care and health outcomes.
Hospitals in the District of Columbia, North Dakota and Arkansas fared the worst, with none of the facilities in those areas receiving an “A” grade. On the other end of the scale, Maine and Massachusetts fared the best, with more than half of their hospitals getting the top grade.
The largest share of hospitals received a “C” grade. Out of the 2,500 hospitals that were graded, just 182 have received a consistent “A” rating over the past three years Leapfrog has been reviewing them.
“Now that we’ve been collecting national hospital data over several years, we can examine not only how safe a hospital is, but how consistently it maintains that patient safety focus over time,” said Leapfrog President Leah Binder.
Compared to Leapfrog’s report card last fall, the hospitals hadn’t made significant improvements in preventing errors, accidents and infections, which are ongoing areas of great concern among healthcare advocates.
However, some strides were made on safety measures before and after surgery, as well as on implementing computerized medication prescribing systems.
