Last week a business publication reported data showing the Northeast is the best region in the U.S. for healthcare while the South is the worst.
This week a study finds nearly the opposite—at least when the focus is on hospital safety.
In the new study, released Nov. 6, the transparency advocate Leapfrog Group finds six of the 10 states with the highest ratio of hospitals earning an “A” grade for that criterion are in Dixie.
The star pupils are Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Florida.
Also making the short list of the very safest are Utah, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Montana.
Meanwhile the states with the least favorable safety performance all reside under Northern skies—Vermont, Wyoming, Delaware, North Dakota and Washington, D.C.
Those locales had no hospitals at all earning an “A” from Leapfrog.
Few ‘D’ grades and almost no Fs
For the survey, Leapfrog assigned a letter grade, “A” to “F,” to almost 3,000 general hospitals. The group looked at how well each prevents medical errors, accidents and infections.
Taken as a whole, U.S. hospitals seem to have made strong strides toward improving safety in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. That outbreak, of course, caused hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) to spike.
For 2023, close to 30% of the 3,000 graded hospitals earned an “A” while only 7% got slapped with a “D” and less than 1% took the hit of an “F.”
“B” grades went to 24% of the field, and 39% got a “C.”
Leapfrog concentrated on three HAIs—Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) and catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI).
The organization notes that all three reached five-year highs during the pandemic.
Since then, 19% of hospitals have improved in all three infection measures and 66% have improved at least one infection measure, Leapfrog reports.
A relatively slim 16% of hospitals have continued to worsen or made no improvement.
Infection control: Encouraging. Patient experience, not so much
At the same time as safety is getting better overall, the patient experience may have taken a turn for the worse.
Noting that the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade includes five patient experience measures that “evidence suggests are closely associated with patient safety issues,” the organization reports these measures worsened for the second year in a row.
In addition, all states experienced a significant decline in reported patient experience from the fall 2021 to the fall 2023 Safety Grade. The most troubling falloffs came in the areas of “communication about medicines” and “responsiveness of hospital staff.”
Leapfrog Group president and CEO Leah Binder says the organization “applaud[s] hospitals for reversing the disturbing infection spike we saw during the pandemic. However, there’s still more work to be done. It’s deeply concerning that patient reports about their healthcare experience continues to decline.”
“In talking with hospital leaders, we believe staffing shortages are one key reason for the continued decline [in patient experience scores]. Many hospitals are innovating to help make patient experience better, which is critical because these results are disheartening and unsustainable.”
Find Leapfrog Group’s grades for particular hospitals of interest here.
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.