NC hospital safety rankings released. See which hospitals received A, B and C grades
After earning the top spot last spring, North Carolina has been ranked as having the third-safest hospitals in the country.
The Leapfrog Group — a national watchdog organization of employers and other purchasers focused on health care safety — released its fall 2023 Hospital Safety Grades Monday, scoring local hospitals with A through F letter grades.
North Carolina’s Leapfrog safety rankings:
No. 1 in spring 2022
No. 7 in fall 2022
No. 6 in spring 2023
No. 3 in fall 2023
This fall, Utah was ranked #1 as the state with the highest percentage of A-ranked hospitals in the country. Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and South Carolina followed respectively.
What makes a hospital safe?
The Hospital Safety Grade list assigns a letter grade to general hospitals in the U.S. based on how well they prevent medical errors, accidents, injuries and infections that kill or harm patients.
About 30 measures are used to generate these safety grades. The Leapfrog Group reported five patient experience measures have a direct relationship with safety outcomes:
Nurse communication
Doctor communication
Staff responsiveness
Communication about medicines
Discharge communication
Grades are assigned using publicly available data, and measures’ scores are calculated using patient responses to a national and standardized survey following a hospital visit, Leapfrog said.
Medicine communication and staff responsiveness decline nationally
Nationally, patient experience scores worsened for the second year in a row, and all states saw a significant decline in reported patient experience.
The most significant declines were noted for medicine communication and staff responsiveness, Leapfrog found. Both correlate with preventative medical errors.
In total, 88 hospitals in North Carolina received safety grades in Leapfrog’s fall 2023 report.
The N&O compiled information from Leapfrog about how Triangle hospitals stacked up in the new rankings, how the grades are calculated and how grades should be interpreted.
How safe are Triangle-area hospitals?
The following Triangle hospitals received A grades in Leapfrog’s Fall 2023 Hospital Safety Grades report:
UNC Rex Hospital (Raleigh)
Duke Regional Hospital (Durham)
Duke University Hospital (Durham)
Johnston Health (Clayton)
WakeMed Cary Hospital (Cary)
WakeMed North Hospital (Raleigh)
WakeMed Raleigh Campus (Raleigh)
UNC Rex Hospital is one of 18 hospitals to receive straight A’s since the inception of the Hospital Safety Grades. In spring 2023, there were 20 hospitals with that honor.
The following Triangle hospitals received B grades:
Johnston Health (Smithfield)
REX Holly Springs Hospital (Holly Springs)
UNC Hospitals (Chapel Hill)
The following Triangle hospital received a C grade:
Central Carolina Hospital (Sanford)
How safe are Charlotte-area hospitals?
The following Charlotte-area hospitals received A grades in Leapfrog’s Fall 2023 Hospital Safety Grades report:
Atrium Health Cabarrus (Concord)
Atrium Health Mercy (Charlotte)
Atrium Health Pineville (Charlotte)
Atrium Health Union (Monroe)
Carolinas Medical Center (Charlotte)
CaroMont Regional Medical Center (Gastonia)
Novant Health Huntersville Medical Center (Huntersville)
Novant Health Matthews Medical Center (Matthews)
Novant Health Mint Hill Medical Center (Charlotte)
Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center (Charlotte)
The following Charlotte hospital received a B grade:
Atirum Health University City
How are Hospital Safety Grades calculated?
Leapfrog’s Hospital Safety Grades are assigned biannually — once in the spring and once in the fall. The Hospital Safety Grade program was established in 2012.
▪ Grades are assigned using letters, with A being the best possible grade and F being the worst.
▪ The overall grades are based on about 30 evidence-based measures of the basics of patient safety, including handwashing, entering prescriptions through a computer and the availability of highly trained nurses.
▪ The grades are assigned using data from a variety of public sources, including from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
▪ Grades are generally assigned to nearly 3,000 hospitals. Any general, acute-care hospital in the U.S. for which there is enough publicly available data is included in the grading list.
▪ Individual scores that contribute to a hospital’s overall letter grade fall into five categories:
Infections, including how often patients at the hospital contract MRSA, urinary tract infections, blood infections and more.
Problems with surgery, including how often dangerous items are left in a patient’s body after surgery, how often surgical wounds split open and accidental cuts and tears.
Safety problems, including patient falls and dangerous bed sores.
Practices to prevent errors, including handwashing and safe medication administration.
Doctors, nurses and hospital staff, including having enough qualified nurses and performing patient beside care.
How should you use Leapfrog’s hospital safety scores?
In a video explaining how to use the hospital safety grades, Leapfrog recommends using the Hospital Safety Grades to inform your decision when choosing a hospital, or to simply learn more about hospitals in your area.
▪ Using Leapfrog’s search tool on the homepage at hospitalsafetygrade.org, you can search for hospitals by hospital name, city and state, just state or by ZIP code.
▪ When you get to your results page, Leapfrog recommends looking for hospitals with the highest grade.
If there is more than one hospital with a good grade, look at other things that are important to you when seeking care, such as location of the hospital and its proximity to you.
If a hospital doesn’t have a good grade, Leapfrog recommends searching for another location, or talking with your doctor to discuss what you can do to stay safe in the hospital.
The overall letter grade for a hospital gives you the “big picture,” Leapfrog says. But you can also see the individual scores that make up the hospital’s grade.
▪ If there are certain issues or risks you’re concerned about, make sure to check the hospital’s score on that measure. Leapfrog recommends always checking a hospital’s scores on handwashing, blood infections and patient falls.
▪ Each score the hospital receives is also listed with the best and worst score on that measure by any hospital, as well as the average score for hospitals on that measure.
More information on how to use the Hospital Safety Grades can be found at hospitalsafetygrade.org/your-hospitals-safety-grade/how-to-use-the-grade.
What can you do to stay safe in the hospital?
Regardless of a hospital’s safety grade, Leapfrog recommends the following tips to stay safe if you need to receive care at a hospital:
▪ Bring someone with you when you arrive and when you’re discharged. If possible, also try to have someone visit every day of your stay.
The extra person can make sure that even when you’re groggy or tired, there’s someone there to be alert, ask questions and advocate for your care. Hospitals might have patient advocates on staff who can also provide these resources.
▪ Be alert and say something. During your stay, you or your companion should take notes to keep track of what’s happening, including if hospital staff and your care team are washing their hands.
▪ Know your medications. Leapfrog recommends keeping track of which medications you’re taking during your stay and why you’re taking them.
Don’t be afraid to ask your care team for this information. You can also ask that your care team cross-checks your name with your medications before giving them to you in order to prevent possible mix-ups.
The N&O’s Korie Dean contributed to this report.
Triangle Asked & Answered: What do you want to know?
Have a question about something in our community? The News & Observer’s Service Journalism team wants your questions for our Triangle Asked & Answered series. Reach out to us by filling out this form or by sending an email to ask@newsobserver.com.
Some birds are being renamed, including these 10 from North Carolina. Here’s why
Jones Sausage to Glascock: The history behind some of Raleigh’s funny-sounding road names
