Maryland Hospital Safety Grades 2021: The Best And The Worst

MARYLAND — Fifteen Maryland hospitals received top safety marks while others didn’t quite measure up in The Leapfrog Group’s annual spring safety grades released Thursday.

The nonprofit health care watchdog group grades hospitals twice a year, assigning letter grades from “A” to “F” based on each hospital's ability to protect patients from preventable errors, accidents, injuries and infections.

More than 2,700 general, acute-care U.S. hospitals were assessed for Leapfrog’s Spring Safety Grades. Among those hospitals, 27 have achieved 19 consecutive “A” grades in every biannual grading cycle since Leapfrog launched the safety grades in spring 2012.

In Maryland:

• 15 hospitals received an A grade.
• 15 hospitals received a B grade.
• 12 hospitals received a C grade.
• 1 hospital received a D grade.
• 0 hospitals received an F grade.

It’s worth noting the hospitals were graded during a time of extraordinary pressure on the health care system due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“This pandemic emphasized how much we rely on America’s health care workforce,” Leapfrog Group President and CEO Leah Binder said in a news release. “Our straight ‘A’ hospitals remind us how preparedness protected their patients as well as their workforce and created a high level of organizational resilience.”

Here are the Leapfrog Group's spring 2021 grades for hospitals in Maryland:

Grade "A"

• Anne Arundel Medical Center, Annapolis
• Frederick Health Hospital, Frederick
• Garrett Regional Medical Center, Oakland
• Holy Cross Germantown Hospital, Germantown
• Howard County General Hospital, Columbia
• Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Baltimore
• MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center, Baltimore
• MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital, Baltimore
• MedStar St. Mary's Hospital, Leonardtown
• Mercy Medical Center, Baltimore
• The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore
• UM Baltimore Washington Medical Center, Glen Burnie
• University of Maryland Medical Center Midtown Campus, Baltimore
• University of Maryland Shore Medical Center at Chestertown, Chestertown
• University of Maryland Shore Medical Center at Easton, Easton

Grade "B"

• Carroll Hospital Center, Westminster
• Greater Baltimore Medical Center, Towson
• MedStar Harbor Hospital, Baltimore
• MedStar Montgomery Medical Center, Olney
• MedStar Southern Maryland Hospital Center, Clinton
• MedStar Union Memorial Hospital, Baltimore
• Meritus Medical Center, Hagerstown
• Suburban Hospital, Bethesda
• TidalHealth Peninsula Regional, Inc., Salisbury
• University of Maryland Charles Regional Medical Center, La Plata
• University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore
• University of Maryland Shore Medical Center at Dorchester, Cambridge
• University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center, Towson
• University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Medical Center, Bel Air
• UPMC Western Maryland, Cumberland

Grade "C"

• Adventist HealthCare Fort Washington Medical Center, Fort Washington
• Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center, Rockville
• Adventist HealthCare White Oak Medical Center, Silver Spring
• Atlantic General Hospital, Berlin
• CalvertHealth Medical Center, Prince Frederick
• Doctors Community Hospital, Lanham
• Holy Cross Hospital, Silver Spring
• Northwest Hospital, Randallstown
• Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, Baltimore
• St. Agnes Hospital, Baltimore
• UM Harford Memorial Hospital, Havre De Grace
• Union Hospital, Elkton

Grade "D"

• University of Maryland Prince George's Hospital Center, Cheverly

There were no "F" grades.

Across all states, highlights of findings from the spring 2021 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade include:

• Thirty-three percent of hospitals received an "A," 24 percent received a "B," 35 percent received a "C," 7 percent received a "D," and less than 1 percent received an "F."
• Five states with the highest percentages of "A" hospitals are Massachusetts, Idaho, Maine, Virginia, and North Carolina.
• There were no "A" hospitals in South Dakota or North Dakota.

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.

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is peer-reviewed by a panel of national experts, and the Leapfrog Group receives guidance from the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality.