70 FL Hospitals Earn ‘A’ Grades, 12 Get ‘D’ In Latest Leapfrog Ratings

FLORIDA — Hospitals in Florida and nationwide made significant improvements in preventing a “disturbing” increase in hospital infections during the coronavirus pandemic, The Leapfrog Group said with the release Monday of its Fall 2023 Hospital Safety Grades Report.

The Leapfrog Group, an independent nonprofit health care watchdog group, used an academic grading scale with five letter grades to score nearly 3,000 hospitals nationwide on how well they prevent medical errors, accidents and infections. Overall, the report shows hospitals significantly reduced infections after the pandemic spike, but patient-reported experiences declined for the second year in a row.

Among 184 Florida hospitals evaluated in the report, 70 received the gold-standard “A” safety grade. Another 39 earned a “B,” 63 earned a “C” and 12 earned a “D.” No hospitals in the Sunshine State received an "F."

Florida hospitals earning “A” grades are:

• Orlando Health - Orlando Regional Medical Center, Orlando
• AdventHealth Orlando, Orlando
• AdventHealth East Orlando, Orlando
• Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola
• Orlando Health Dr. P. Phillips Hospital, Orlando
• Orlando Health Central Hospital, Ocoee
• AdventHealth Altamonte Springs
• AdventHealth DeLand
• AdventHealth Zephyrhills
• AdventHealth Apopka
• Orlando Health - South Lake Hospital, Clermont
• Winter Haven Hospital
• AdventHealth Celebration
• AdventHealth Fish Memorial, Orange City
• St. Joseph’s Hospital North, Lutz
• AdventHealth Kissimmee
• Baptist Medical Center South, Jacksonville
• Rockledge Regional Medical Center
• AdventHealth Sebring
• AdventHealth Lake Placid
• Bartow Regional Medical Center
• Baptist Health Homestead Hospital
• Mayo Clinic Florida, Jacksonville
• HCA Florida Lake City Hospital
• AdventHealth Winter Park
• HCA Florida Sarasota Doctors Hospital
• HCA Florida Memorial Hospital, Jacksonville
• Larkin Community Hospital, South Miami
• HCA Florida Trinity Hospital
• HCA Florida North Florida Hospital, Gainesville
• HCA Florida Ocala Hospital
• HCA Fort Walton-Destin Hospital, Fort Walton Beach
• HCA Florida Westside Hospital, Plantation
• HCA Florida Brandon Hospital
• Jupiter Medical Center
• HCA Florida St. Lucie Hospital, Port St. Lucie
• Orlando Health South Seminole Hospital, Longwood
• HCA Florida Englewood Hospital
• Memorial Hospital Miramar
• Baptist Health Doctors Hospital, Coral Gables
• AdventHealth Wesley Chapel
• AdventHealth Daytona Beach
• Healthpark Medical Center, Fort Myers
• Oviedo Medical Center
• St. Joseph’s Hospital South, Riverview
• HCA Florida West Marion Hospital, Ocala
• Cape Coral Hospital
• UF Health Shands Hospital
• St. Anthony’s Hospital, St. Petersburg
• Mease Dunedin Hospital
• AdventHealth Tampa
• AdventHealth Carrollwood, Tampa
• HCA Florida South Tampa Hospital
• Morton Plant Hospital, Clearwater
• Morton Plant North Bay Hospital, New Port Richey
• Mease Countryside Hospital, Safety Harbor
• Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville
• HCA Florida Pasadena Hospital, St. Petersburg
• Sarasota Memorial Hospital
• AdventHealth Ocala
• AdventHealth North Pinellas, Tarpon Springs
• UF Health Jacksonville
• AdventHealth Dade City
• Lee Memorial Hospital, Fort Myers
• Baptist Medical Center Nassau, Fernandina Beach
• St. Joseph’s Hospital, Tampa
• Baptist Medical Center Beaches, Jacksonville Beach
• South Florida Baptist Hospital, Plant City
• Gulf Coast Medical Center, Fort Myers

These Florida hospitals received "D" grades:

• Halifax Health Medical Center, Daytona Beach
• North Shore Medical Center, Miami
• HCA Florida JFK Hospital, Atlantis
• Adventhealth Heart of Florida, Davenport
• Baptist Health Boca Raton Regional Hospital, Boca Raton
• HCA Florida Northwest Hospital, Margate
• Jackson South Medical Center, Miami
• Florida Medical Center, Fort Lauderdale
• Cleveland Clinic Martin South Hospital, Stuart
• Halifax Health Medical Center - Port Orange, Port Orange
• Cleveland Clinic Martin North Hospital, Stuart
• HCA Florida Highlands Hospital, Sebring

The Leapfrog Group grades hospitals twice a year. In the fall report, the first report using post-pandemic data, 30 percent of hospitals nationwide earned an “A,” 24 percent earned a “B,” 39 percent earned a “C,” 7 percent earned a “D,” and fewer than 1 percent earned an “F.”

The 10 states with the highest number of “A” hospitals are Utah, Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Connecticut, Montana, Tennessee, Florida and Texas.

States that had no “A” hospitals are Vermont, Wyoming, Delaware and North Dakota, as well as Washington, D.C.

More than 85 percent of hospitals saw decreases in the three most dangerous infections — MRSA, central-line bloodstream infections and catheter-associated urinary tract infections.

• 19 percent improved in all three infection measures;
• 66 percent improved in at least one infection measure;
• 16 percent continued to worsen or did not improve.

“Now that we have pre- and post-pandemic data for patient safety measures, we are encouraged by the improvement in infections and applaud hospitals for reversing the disturbing infection spike we saw during the pandemic,” Leapfrog president and CEO Leah Binder said in a news release.

However, Binder said the continued decline in patient experiences is “deeply concerning.” Hospitals in all states have seen a significant decline in reported patient experiences since the fall of 2021, the report said.

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.