Colorado Hospital Safety Grades 2020: The Best And Worst

DENVER, CO—Several hospitals in Colorado received top grades for safety while others didn’t quite measure up, according to new spring 2020 ratings recently released by the Leapfrog Group.

Safety grades are released by the nonprofit organization twice per year, in the spring and the fall. The ratings of more than 2,600 hospitals focus on accidents, injuries and infections, and help to assess how well a facility prevents medical errors and other harm to patients.

It’s worth noting the metrics used to determine this spring’s hospital grades originated from safety data reported for periods ending in 2018 and 2019. The report does not take into account the strain the new coronavirus outbreak is placing on some hospitals where staff are experiencing shortages of drugs and protection equipment.

In Colorado:

• 16 hospitals received an A grade.
• 9 hospitals received a B grade.
• 13 hospitals received a C grade.
• 2 hospitals received a D grade.
• 0 hospitals received an F grade.

(See detailed list below)

The latest grades show 33 percent of hospitals nationwide earned an “A” grade while 25 percent earned a “B.” Some 35 percent earned a “C” grade, 7 percent a “D” and less than 1 percent received an “F” grade.

Here are the Leapfrog Group's spring 2020 grades for hospitals in Colorado:

Centura Health Castle Rock Adventist Hospital - A

Centura Health-Avista Adventist Hospital - A

Centura Health-Penrose Hospital - A

Centura Health-St. Anthony North Hospital - A

Centura Health-St. Francis Medical Center - A

Centura Health-St. Mary Corwin Medical Center - A

Lutheran Medical Center - A

Medical Center of Aurora - A

Mercy Regional Medical Center - A

Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center - A

Rose Medical Center - A

Saint Joseph Hospital - A

Sky Ridge Medical Center - A

St. Anthony Summit Medical Center - A

St. Mary's Hospital and Medical Center - A

Swedish Medical Center - A

Centura Health-Littleton Adventist Hospital - B

Centura Health-St. Anthony Hospital - B

Denver Health Medical Center - B

Good Samaritan Medical Center - B

Longmont United Hospital - B

McKee Medical Center - B

Montrose Memorial Hospital - B

North Colorado Medical Center - B

North Suburban Medical Center - B

Boulder Community Foothills Hospital - C

Centura Health-Porter Adventist Hospital - C

Centura Parker Adventist Hospital - C

Colorado Plains Medical Center - C

Delta County Memorial Hospital - C

Platte Valley Medical Center - C

UCHealth Medical Center of the Rockies - C

UCHealth Memorial Hospital Central - C

UCHealth Poudre Valley Hospital - C

UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital - C

UCHealth Yampa Valley Medical Center - C

Vail Health - C

Valley View Hospital - C

Parkview Medical Center - D

Regional Medical Center - D

To determine each state’s grade, Leapfrog used up to 28 national performance measures from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Leapfrog Hospital Survey and information from other supplemental data sources. When averaged, performance measures produce a single letter grade representing a hospital’s overall performance in keeping patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors.

The goal of the Hospital Safety Grade is to reduce deaths caused by hospital errors and injuries.

Leapfrog estimates that if the risk at all hospitals was equivalent to what it is at "A" hospitals, 50,000 lives at other facilities would have been saved. Overall, the researchers estimate that 160,000 lives are lost every year due to avoidable medical errors. That figure is down from 2016, when the Leapfrog Group estimated there were 205,000 avoidable deaths.

For a full description of the methodology, go here.