Grades are in: These are the safest local hospitals

From leaving dangerous objects inside patients to preventing treatable complications that can lead to death, the advocacy Leapfrog Group measures multiple factors in determining the safest hospitals by state. 

The Leapfrog Group Hospital Safety Grades (formerly known as Hospital Safety Scores) are assigned to nearly 3,000 general acute-care hospitals across the nation twice annually. The group uses more than 30 national performance measures from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Leapfrog Hospital Survey and information from other supplemental data sources, according to its website. 

It issues A, B, C, D or F letter grades. Leapfrog does not currently assign grades to military/Veterans Administration hospitals, critical access hospitals, specialty hospitals, children’s hospitals or outpatient surgery centers.

The full list of grades for Florida hospitals can be found here. 

Here’s a glimpse of some of the local hospitals graded and highlight behind the scoring: 

AdventHealth North Pinellas 

Grade: A grade for fall 2022; previously graded an A for spring 2022. AdventHealth has consistently earned straight A’s for all of its local campuses. 

Why: The hospital performed well in not leaving dangerous objects inside patients and not causing accidental tears or cuts, which can happen during surgery. The campus received high scores in addressing and preventing common safety problems, such as dangerous blood clots and air bubbles in the blood. Regarding its communication effort among staff, it performed above average for the majority of subsections in the category. However, while the hospital campus received a high overall score, the hospital did not perform well in preventing blood leakage, which can happen when blood vessels become injured. It also did not perform well in preventing sepsis infections after surgery and preventing infections in the urinary tract. 

Bayfront Health St. Petersburg 

Grade: C grade for fall 2022; previously graded a C for spring 2022 

Why: The hospital received mixed scores in every category. In preventing infections, it performed above average in preventing sepsis, infections in the blood, staph bacterial infections and urinary tract infections post-surgery, but it performed poorly in preventing other infections. It also received negative scores in preventing deaths from treatable complications, blook leakage, blood clots, collapsed lungs, and patient falls and injuries, among other subcategories. It did earn positive scores on not leaving dangerous objects in patients, preventing air bubbles in the blood, and accidental cuts and tears. It received negative marks on good communication efforts and its responsiveness. 

St. Anthony’s Hospital 

Grade: A grade for fall 2022; previously graded an A for spring 2022 

Why: The hospital earned high points for preventing infections, including staph bacterial infections, surgical site infections after colon surgery and sepsis; however, it did not perform well in preventing infections in the blood. It received mixed scores on the problems with surgery category. The hospital performed above average in not leaving dangerous objects inside patients, preventing serious breathing problems for patients and preventing accidental cuts and tears, but it did suffer negative scores in not preventing deaths from treatable complications, blood leakage and other subcategories. It also received mixed scores for the safety problems category, scoring below above in preventing blood clots, patient falls and injuries and other events. Overall, it received high marks for praticing good communication among staff and its responsiveness. 

HCA Florida St. Petersburg Hospital 

Grade: A grade for fall 2022; previously graded an A for spring 2022 

Why: The hospital overall had above-average scores for preventing infections such as staph bacterial infections and infections in the blood, although it did perform below average in preventing sepsis post-surgery. The hospital received mixed reviews in the categories. It performed above average in not leaving dangerous objects inside patients, preventing patient falls and injuries and preventing collapsed lungs, but it did not perform well in preventing dangerous blood clots, blood leakage and serious breathing problems for patients. The hospital received negative scores in practicing good communication among staff, but it did perform above average in medication administration, handwashing and other subcategories. 

Mease Countryside Hospital 

Grade: A grade for fall 2022; previously graded an A for spring 2022

Why: The hospital performed above average in preventing infections, including sepsis, infections in the blood and staph bacterial infections. However, it did perform below average for preventing infections in the urinary tract and surgical sites post-colon surgery. The hospital also received a negative score in leaving dangerous objects inside of patients, preventing deaths from treatable complications and other subcategories. The hospital performed above average in preventing air bubbles in the blood and dangerous blood clots and received high points overall for praticing good communication among staff. 

Mease Dunedin Hospital 

Grade: A grade for fall 2022; previously graded an A for spring 2022 

Why: The hospital performed above average in preventing staph bacterial infections, sepsis infections and addressing common problems after surgery, such as not leaving dangerous objects in patients, preventing blood leakage and accidental cuts and tears. The hospital performed above average the subcategories for good communication among staff and responsiveness. The hospital did suffer negative scores in preventing dangerous blood clots, patient falls and injuries and dangerous bed sores. Also, some information for the hospital is noted as unavailable. 

Morton Plant Hospital 

Grade: A grade for fall 2022; previously graded an A for spring 2022 

Why: Overall, the hospital performed well in preventing staph bacterial infections, infections in the blood and other subcategories except for preventing sepsis after surgery. Regarding problems that often occur with surgery, the hospital performed well in the majority of the subcategories, including not leaving dangerous objects inside patients and preventing death for treatable complications. It did receive a negative score on preventing kidney injuries after surgery. The hospital received mixed scoring in the safety problems category. It performed above average on preventing dangerous blood clots and air bubbles in the blood, but it performed below average on preventing patient falls and injuries, as well as patients having collapsed lungs. Overall, the hospital received a majority of high scores in practicing good communication among staff and its responsiveness. 

Tampa General Hospital 

Grade: B grade for fall 2022; previously graded a C for spring 2022 

Why: The hospital performed above average in preventing certain infections, such as infections in the blood, but performed below average in preventing sepsis infections after surgery and staph bacterial infections. It performed below average in not leaving dangerous objects inside patients, preventing blood leakage, preventing kidney injuries after surgery and breathing problems for patients. However, it did perform above average in preventing deaths from serious treatable complications. In the safety problems category, it did earn positive scores on preventing patient falls and injuries, collapsed lungs and air bubbles in the blood. It did suffer negative scores in preventing blood clots. It did perform above average in practicing good communication among staff.