Washington Hospitals' Safety Grades: 13 Hospitals Get An ‘A’

OLYMPIA, WA — Thirteen Washington-based hospitals received an "A" grade in hospital safety, according to new Spring 2019 ratings released by the Leapfrog Group. The nonprofit group found that of the more than 2,600 hospitals graded in the country, 32 percent earned an A grade, findings that were unchanged from the group’s last round of rankings released in Fall 2018.

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

Oregon, Virginia, Maine, Massachusetts and Utah had the highest percentage of hospitals that received an A grade. Four states — Wyoming, Arkansas, Delaware, North Dakota — and the District of Columbia did not have a single hospital that received an A grade.

Here are the grades Washington hospitals were given by the Leapfrog Group:

A

• EvergreenHealth, 12040 N.E. 128th St.in Kirkland
• Harrison Medical Center, 2520 Cherry Ave. in Bremerton
• Harrison Medical Center - Silverdale, 1800 N.W. Myhre Rd. in Silverdale
• Kadlec Regional Medical Center, 888 Swift Blvd. in Richland
• Northwest Hospital and Medical Center, 1550 N. 115th St. in Seattle
• Overlake Hospital Medical Center, 1035 116th Ave. N.E. in Bellevue
• Providence Regional Medical Center Everett, 1700 13th St. in Everett
• Providence St. Mary Medical Center, 401 W. Poplar St. in Walla Walla
• St. Anthony Hospital, 11567 Canterwood Blvd. N.W. in Gig Harbor
• St. Francis Hospital of Federal Way, 34515 Ninth Ave. S. in Federal Way
• Swedish Health Services Issaquah, 751 N.E. Blakely Dr. in Issaquah
• Valley Medical Center, 400 S. 43rd St. in Renton
• Virginia Mason Medical Center, 1100 Ninth Ave. in Seattle

B

• Legacy Salmon Creek Hospital, 2211 N.E. 139th St. in Vancouver
• MultiCare Auburn Medical Center, 202 N. Division St. in Auburn
• Multicare Good Samaritan Hospital, 401 15th Ave. S.E. in Puyallup
• Olympic Medical Center, 939 Caroline St. in Port Angeles
• St. Clare Hospital, 11315 Bridgeport Way S.W. in Lakewood
• St. Joseph Medical Center of Tacoma, 1717 S. J St. in Tacoma
• Swedish Edmonds Hospital, 21601 76th Ave. W. in Edmonds
• Swedish Medical Center Cherry Hill, 500 17th Ave. in Seattle
• Swedish Medical Center First Hill, 747 Broadway in Seattle
• University of Washington Medical Center, 1959 N.E. Pacific St. in Seattle

C

• Astria Regional Medical Center, 110 S. Ninth Ave. in Yakima
• Central Washington Hospital, 1201 S. Miller St. in Wenatchee
• Harborview Medical Center, 325 Ninth Ave. in Seattle
• Highline Medical Center, 16251 Sylvester Rd. S.W. in Burien
• Island Hospital, 1211 24th St. in Anacortes
• MultiCare Allenmore Hospital, 1901 S. Union Ave. in Tacoma
• MultiCare Deaconess Hospital, 800 W. Fifth Ave. in Spokane
• MultiCare Valley Hospital, 12606 E. Mission Ave. in Spokane Valley
• PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center, 2901 Squalicum Parkway in Bellingham
• Providence Centralia Hospital, 914 S. Scheuber Rd. in Centralia
• Providence Holy Family Hospital, 5633 N. Lidgerwood St. in Spokane
• Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center, 101 W. Eighth Ave. in Spokane
• Providence St. Peter Hospital, 413 Lilly Rd. N.E. in Olympia
• Samaritan Hospital, 801 E. Wheeler Rd. in Moses Lake
• Swedish Medical Center Ballard, 5300 Tallman Ave. N.W. in Seattle
• Tacoma General Hospital, 315 Martin Luther King Jr. Way in Tacoma
• Trios Southridge Hospital, 3810 Plaza Way in Kennewick
• Trios Women's and Children's Hospital, 900 S. Auburn St. in Kennewick
• Virginia Mason Memorial Hospital, 2811 Tieton Dr. in Yakima

D

• PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center, 400 N.E. Mother Joseph Pl. in Vancouver
• Skagit Valley Hospital, 300 Hospital Parkway in Mount Vernon

For this round of rankings, the Leapfrog Group’s research found that patients at hospitals that receive “D” or “F” grades face a 92 percent greater risk of avoidable death compared to “A” hospitals. At “C” and “B” hospitals, patients on average face an 88 percent and a 35 percent greater risk respectively.

No Washington hospitals reportedly received an "F" grade.

The group estimates that if the risk at all hospitals was equivalent to what it is at “A” hospitals, 50,000 lives 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 good news is that tens of thousands of lives have been saved because of progress on patient safety. The bad news is that there’s still a lot of needless death and harm in American hospitals,” Leah Binder, president and CEO of the Leapfrog Group, said in a press release. “Hospitals don’t all have the same track record, so it really matters which hospital people choose, which is the purpose of our Hospital Safety Grade.”

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 28 measures that are taken together to “produce a single letter grade representing a hospital’s overall performance in keeping patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors.”

The group uses performance measures from a variety of sources, including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Leapfrog Hospital Survey and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (You can read more about the letter grades here.)

Patch National Editor Feroze Dhanoa contributed to this report.