How Lake Norman Hospitals Fare In New Safety Ratings

HUNTERSVILLE, NC — More than three dozen North Carolina hospitals — 42 in total — received an "A" grade in hospital safety, including one in Huntersville, according to new fall 2020 ratings released this week by the Leapfrog Group. The nonprofit group found that of the more than 2,600 hospitals graded in the country, 34 percent earned an "A" grade, a one percent increase from safety grades released in Fall 2019.

The Leapfrog Group explains that its rating system is focused entirely on preventable errors, accidents, injuries and infections. The hospital safety grades are released by the nonprofit group twice a year.

Maine, Idaho, Virginia, Delaware, Massachusetts and Oregon had the highest percentage of hospitals that received an "A" grade in the Fall 2020 ratings. Three states — Alaska, South Dakota and North Dakota — did not have a single hospital that received an "A" grade.

Here are Leapfrog's grades for the greater Charlotte metro and Lake Norman region hospitals. (Click on the name for more information about each individual listing.)

• Atrium Health University City, Charlotte — A
• Carolinas Medical Center, Charlotte — A
• Novant Health Matthews Medical Center, Matthews — A
• Novant Health Rowan Medical Center, Salisbury — A
• Piedmont Medical Center, Rock Hill — A
• Novant Health Huntersville Medical Center, Huntersville — A
• Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center, Charlotte — A
• Atrium Health Lincoln, Lincolnton — A
• CaroMont Regional Medical Center, Gastonia — A
• Atrium Health Union, Monroe — A
• Atrium Health Stanly, Albemarle — A
• Carolinas Medical Center - Mercy, Charlotte — B
• Atrium Health Cabarrus, Concord — B
• Atrium Health Cleveland, Shelby — B
• Atrium Health Pineville, Charlotte — B
• Lake Norman Regional Medical Center, Mooresville — C
• Iredell Memorial Hospital, Statesville — C

You can find the grades for all North Carolina hospitals here.

Hospital safety is even more paramount during a pandemic, the group said.

“We see in the news every day the extraordinary courage of clinicians and staff caring for patients stricken by COVID-19. What’s less apparent—yet equally laudable—are the untold efforts behind the scenes to protect patients. Hospitals’ commitment to the fundamentals have saved lives too, like preventing infection, ensuring universal hand hygiene, and double and triple checking everything to avoid errors,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group.

Leapfrog assigns A,B,C,D and F letter grades to general acute-care hospitals in the United States. Leapfrog explains that the safety grade includes performance measures taken from federal government data and the group's own hospital survey to "produce a single letter grade representing a hospital's overall performance in keeping patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors." The group relies on a panel of experts to select the measures used in the methodology and to develop a scoring system. (You can read more about the letter grades here.)