Hospitals making strides in Leapfrog Group’s Spring 2025 Safety Grades
Health systems are doing better in protecting patients, and Leapfrog is offering new recognition for those performing well over time. But the group finds variance in performance and still sees room for hospitals to improve.
Hospitals are showing more signs of improvements in patient safety, according to The Leapfrog Group’s Spring 2025 Hospital Safety Grades.
The Leapfrog Group, an organization focused on patient safety, released its latest round of hospital grades Thursday morning. The Leapfrog Group releases two sets of report cards annually, in the spring and fall. The grading system mirrors grades in school, with top hospitals getting an “A”, and others getting graded down the line.
For the first time, The Leapfrog Group is shining a spotlight on hospitals that are performing consistently well over time.
The Leapfrog Group has designated 346 hospitals as “Straight A” hospitals for earning an “A” in both the latest report and in five consecutive report cards. Roughly one in eight hospitals reviewed (12%) earned the “Straight A” designation.
An elite group of 11 hospitals received “Straight A’s” for all of Leapfrog’s 27 report cards.
Katie Stewart, The Leapfrog Group’s director of health care ratings, tells Chief Healthcare Executive® that the organization is looking to recognize those hospitals that achieved high marks in patient care for a significant period of time.
“That's what we really want to see,” Stewart says. “It's not just about a snapshot. You know, patient safety is a daily thing. Hospitals need to be committed to it, putting their patients first on a daily basis, and so when we see consistency and high performance, that just shows that the hospital is really putting patient safety first.”
The group has kept track of hospitals earning “A” grades consistently, but the organization wanted to give more recognition to organizations that have seen continued success in patient safety.
“We want to recognize those facilities as they’re not just earning an ‘A’ this round, but they've been consistently performing well, which is what we want to see,” Stewart says. (See part of our conversation in this video. The story continues below.)
The Leapfrog Group analyzed nearly 3,000 hospitals in coming up with its rankings. The group examined 22 patient safety metrics such as infections acquired in the hospital, utilizing data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
After seeing slippage in safety metrics during the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals are making “really dramatic improvements,” Stewart says. Hospitals are seeing fewer infections tied to catheters or central lines, and those infection rates have now dropped below pre-pandemic levels, she says.
In the spring safety grades, nearly 1 in 3 hospitals (32%) received an “A”, while about a quarter (24%) earned a “B.” More than a third (35) earned a “C”, the most common grade, while 7% of hospitals deceived a “D.”
Yes, some hospitals received a failing grade, with 19 hospitals (less than 1%) getting an “F.”
While hospitals are making strides in patient safety measures, gains in patient experience are lagging, Stewart says. The Leapfrog Group examines patient experience measures that are tied to safety, such as communication about medications or staff responsiveness.
“If you don't have staff that's responsive, you're more likely to suffer a fall or trauma in the hospital,” Stewart says. “We are seeing improvements in patient experience, but we're not back at those pre-pandemic levels.”
Hospitals of all sizes fared well in the safety grades. Some larger hospitals with strong brand recognition earned top grades, but some smaller hospitals also received “A” grades.
There’s a lesson there for hospitals and health systems, Stewart says.
“It really does show that it doesn't matter what population you serve, where you're located … all patients really deserve to go to a safe hospital. And all hospitals can earn an ‘A’,” Stewart says.
“We see small and large hospitals, safety net hospitals, urban, rural hospitals, earning A's,” she says. “Some are well known nationally, and others, maybe just known more in their communities. And it really shows that all hospitals can make this commitment.”
Smaller hospitals showed that even those organizations with modest resources can earn high grades in the latest Leapfrog report.
“It shows that ensuring patient safety doesn't necessarily require a lot of money,” Steart says. “It does require strong leadership commitment. And what we see in these hospitals that are earning an ‘A’ is that strong leadership commitment. But again, all patients, regardless of the type of hospital where they're located, deserve protection from avoidable harm and medical errors.”
Patients can use the safety grade if they’re looking to compare hospitals for important procedures.
“In some cases, you might have the option of choosing an ‘A’ hospital over a ‘C’ or ‘B’ hospital,” Stewart says. “In other cases, maybe you're more limited. In either case, having a conversation with your provider, bringing an advocate with you to the hospital … those are all things that you can do to ensure that you have a better, safer experience in the hospital.”
The group says it only assigns grades when hospitals have enough information to make a useful variation, so smaller hospitals, including critical access hospitals in rural areas and freestanding emergency departments, don’t get grades.
“There are some hospitals that there's just not enough data,” Stewart says.
