Arizona Hospital Safety Grades 2022: The Best And Worst

ARIZONA — Many Arizona got top marks, but some didn’t do quite as well in the Spring 2022 Hospital Safety Grades report released Tuesday by The Leapfrog Group, an independent nonprofit health care watchdog group.

The new grades show quality of care during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Leapfrog Group said its and other groups’ research showed the pandemic reversed years of progress in patient safety, and that is evidenced by the falling grades of some Arizona hospitals, compared to years past.

The pandemic has had a negative effect on “health care delivery at every level and setting, from staffing shortages to increased infections to the very care patients receive,” according to the Patient Experience During the Pandemic: Adult Inpatient Care report, also released Tuesday by The Leapfrog Group.

“The health care workforce has faced unprecedented levels of pressure during the pandemic, and as a result, patients' experience with their care appears to have suffered,” Leapfrog Group president and CEO Leah Binder said in a news release. “We commend the workforce for their heroic efforts these past few years and now strongly urge hospital leadership to recommit to improved care — from communication to responsiveness — and get back on track with patient safety outcomes.”

In Arizona, 10 hospitals received an "A" grade, 21 hospitals received a "B" grade, 11 hospitals received a "C" grade and 8 hospitals received a "D" grade. No Arizona hospitals received an "F" grade.

Here are the rankings, according to Leapfrog:

A

• Banner Gateway, Gilbert
• Banner Goldfield Medical Center, Apache Junction
• Banner Ironwood Medical Center, Queen Creek
• Deer Valley Medical Center, Phoenix
• Kingman Regional Medical Center, Kingman
• Mayo Clinic Hospital, Phoenix
• Northwest Medical Center, Tucson
• Oro Valley Hospital, Oro Valley
• Shea Medical Center, Scottsdale
• Thompson Peak Hospital, Scottsdale

B

• Abrazo Arrowhead Campus, Glendale
• Banner University Medical Center Phoenix, Phoenix
• Banner Baywood Medical Center, Mesa
• Banner Boswell Medical Center, Sun City
• Banner Casa Grande Medical Center, Casa Grande
• Banner Del E Webb Medical Center, Sun City West
• Banner Desert Medical Center, Mesa
• Banner Estrella Medical Center, Phoenix
• Banner University Medical Center-South, Tucson
• Banner Thunderbird Medical Center, Glendale
• Canyon Vista Medical Center, Sierra Vista
• Carondelet St. Mary's Hospital, Tucson
• Dignity Health Arizona General Hospital, Mesa
• Flagstaff Medical Center, Flagstaff
• John C. Lincoln Medical Center, Phoenix
• Osborn Medical Center, Scottsdale
• St. Joseph's Hospital, Tucson
• St. Joseph's Hospital & Medical Center, Phoenix
• St. Joseph's Westgate Medical Center, Glendale
• Tucson Medical Center, Tucson
• Verde Valley Medical Center, Cottonwood

C

• Abrazo Scottsdale Campus, Phoenix
• Abrazo West Campus, Goodyear
• Banner University Medical Center, Tucson
• Chandler Regional Medical Center, Chandler
• Havasu Regional Medical Center, Lake Havasu City
• Mercy Gilbert Medical Center, Gilbert
• Mt. Graham Regional Medical Center, Safford
• Valleywise Health, Phoenix
• Western Arizona Regional Medical Center, Bullhead City
• Yavapai Regional Medical Center - East Campus, Prescott Valley
• Yavapai Regional Medical Center - West Campus, Prescott

D

• Abrazo Central Campus, Phoenix
• Florence Hospital, Florence
• Mountain Vista Medical Center, Mesa
• Summit Healthcare Regional Medical Center, Show Low
• Tempe St. Luke's Hospital, Tempe
• Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation, Tuba City
• Valley View Medical Center, Fort Mohave
• Yuma Regional Medical Center, Yuma

The letter grades assigned to nearly 3,000 U.S general hospitals were based on more than 30 measures of patient safety. Leapfrog says its hospital rating system is the only one in the country focusing solely on a hospital’s ability to protect patients from preventable errors, accidents, injuries and infections.

Included in the 30 are five that research has shown to directly affect patient outcomes, but can be improved with greater communication between caregivers and patients — the number of central line-associated bloodstream infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, infections from colon surgery, MRSA (Staphylococcus) blood laboratory-identified events, and facility-wide inpatient diarrhea events.

When there’s communication about medications, for example, that can lead to fewer hospitalizations for conditions such as sepsis and blood clots, fewer complications, and decreases in the incidence of respiratory failure, Leapfrog said.

Among the findings:

• Thirty-three percent of hospitals received an “A,” 24 percent received a “B,” 36 percent received a “C,” 7 percent received a “D.” and fewer than 1 percent received an “F”.
• The states with the highest percentages of “A” hospitals are North Carolina, Virginia, Utah, Colorado and Michigan.
• There were no “A” hospitals in Wyoming, West Virginia, North Dakota or the District of Columbia.

To determine each hospital’s grade, a panel of medical experts selected 30 evidence-based measures of patient safety such as postoperative sepsis, blood leakage and kidney injury. They then determined the weight of each measure based on evidence, opportunity for improvement and patient impact.

Data on each measure was collected through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Information from the Leapfrog Hospital Survey, available to all hospitals to complete, also affects grades.

Currently, Leapfrog does not assign grades to military or Veterans Administration hospitals, critical access hospitals, specialty hospitals, children’s hospitals or outpatient surgery centers.

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade methodology has been peer-reviewed and published in the Journal of Patient Safety.

The full methodology for the 2022 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is available online.