Report card: How safe are our hospitals?

Serious complications that occur post-surgery and practices set in place to prevent issues are factors the Leapfrog Group measures in grading the nation’s hospitals. 

The Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit organization, has released its Hospital Safety Grades (formerly known as Hospital Safety Scores), which 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. 

The group also has a panel of health care industry experts, including those from Harvard University, Stanford University, Johns Hopkins University School and Vanderbilt University, who weigh in on the scoring metrics. 

Leapfrog issues A, B, C, D or F letter grades. It 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 hospital grades 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 spring 2023; previously graded an A for fall 2022. AdventHealth has consistently earned straight A’s for all of its local campuses. 

Why: The hospital received positive scores in preventing staph and blood-related infections commonly found in hospitals. The campus did receive negative scores in preventing other infections including sepsis. The hospital performed better than average in not leaving dangerous objects inside patients; however, AdventHealth did not perform well in preventing serious breathing problems that patients may experience post-surgery. Overall, the hospital received high scores in having effective communication between staff. 

Bayfront Health St. Petersburg 

Grade: C grade for spring 2023; previously graded a C for fall 2022. 

Why: The hospital performed below average in preventing staph and sepsis infections, but performed better than average in preventing other infections. Additionally, it performed better than average in preventing deaths from serious treatable complications, which can include patients getting pneumonia, experiencing heart attacks or losing function in their kidneys or liver. Bayfront also received a perfect score in not leaving dangerous objects inside patients. The hospital received negative scoring for preventing dangerous bed sores, patient falls and injuries, dangerous blood clots, collapsed lungs and other patient care issues. Bayfront received mixed scoring regarding having effective communication between staff and patients. 

St. Anthony’s Hospital 

Grade: A grade for spring 2023; previously graded an A for fall 2022. 

Why: The hospital performed well in preventing staph and urinary tract infections, but it suffered negative scores in preventing infections in the blood, post-surgical colon sites and sepsis infections. St. Anthony’s performed better than average in not leaving dangerous objects inside patients, preventing serious breathing problems and kidney issues after surgery. The hospital did not perform well in preventing deaths from serious treatable complications. It also received negative scores for preventing patient falls and blood clots. Overall, the hospital performed above average in having effective communication between staff and patients. 

Tampa General Hospital

Grade: C grade for spring 2023; previously graded a B for fall 2022. 

Why: The hospital performed better than average in preventing infections in the blood, urinary tract and post-surgical colon sites; however, it did not perform well in preventing staph and sepsis infections. TGH performed better than average in not leaving dangerous objects inside patients, preventing deaths from serious treatable complications and post-surgery kidney infections. The hospital received negative scores for preventing patient falls and injuries, and dangerous blood clots, as well as having effective communication between hospital staff. 

Mease Countryside Hospital 

Grade: A grade for spring 2023; previously graded an A for fall 2022. The Mease Dunedin Hospital also received an A grade. 

Why: The hospital performed better than average on preventing most infections. Overall, the hospital performed better than average in preventing deaths from serious treatable complications and not leaving dangerous objects inside patients, among other categories. Mease Countryside also performed better than average on preventing the majority of common safety issues including preventing blood clots, and patient falls and injuries. The hospital received high scores in having effective communication between staff and patients. 

HCA Florida Largo Hospital

Grade: A grade for spring 2023; previously graded an A for fall 2022. 

Why: The hospital performed better than average in preventing infections. It also performed better than average in not leaving dangerous objects inside patients, preventing deaths from serious treatable complications and post-surgery kidney injuries. The hospital scored below average in preventing serious breathing problems post-surgery and collapsed lungs in patients. The Largo campus performed better than average in preventing blood clots, air bubbles in the blood, and patient falls and injuries. It received mixed scoring on having effective communications between staff and patients.