These Are The Safest FL Hospitals, New Report Says

FLORIDA — Dozens of hospitals in Florida were among hundreds across the country recently recognized for safety and patient experience by Healthgrades, a comprehensive database of ratings and comparisons for physicians, hospitals and health care providers.

Healthgrades’ 2025 Patient Safety Excellence Awards recognize 442 hospitals in 40 states that represent the top 10 percent of hospitals nationwide for hospital safety, including the prevention of serious infections.

The 57 hospitals in Florida receiving Patient Safety Excellence Awards include the following:

• Keralty Hospital, Miami
• HCA Florida St. Lucie Hospital, Port St. Lucie
• HCA Florida Sarasota Doctors Hospital, Sarasota
• HCA Florida Blake Hospital, Bradenton
• St. Anthony's Hospital, St. Petersburg
• HCA Florida South Tampa Hospital, Tampa
• Morton Plant Hospital, Clearwater
• Oviedo Medical Center, Orlando
• HCA Florida Gulf Coast Hospital, Panama City
• HCA Florida West Hospital, Pensacola
• HCA Florida Lake City Hospital, Lake City
• Ascension Sacred Heart, Pensacola
• Ascension St Vincent's Riverside, Jacksonville
• HCA Florida Memorial Hospital, Jacksonville
• Ascension St. Vincent's Southside Hospital, Jacksonville

Several of the hospitals garnered dozens of awards, including HCA Florida North Florida Hospital in Gainesville, which gained 26 awards this year.

HCA Florida South Tampa’s patience experience rating was 6 percent higher than the national average, according to the Healthgrades report.

Clearwater’s Morton Plant is among America’s 100 best hospitals for spine surgery, while Sarasota Memorial Hospital Venice in North Venice has a patient experience that reaches 20 percent above the national average, according to the report.

If all hospitals performed at a similar level in the prevention of serious injuries and illnesses, about 100,900 patient safety events could have been avoided from 2021 to 2023, Healthgrades said in a news release.

To develop the list, Healthgrades’ data scientists and clinical experts analyze Medicare claims for hospitalizations across 13 patient safety indicators, each representing a serious, potentially preventable complication.

The analysis found that four of these complications accounted for nearly 76 percent of all patient safety events between 2021 and 2023, and that patients treated at a 2025 Patient Safety Excellence Award recipient hospital have a lower risk of experiencing each of these adverse events:

• In-hospital fall resulting in fracture (54 percent less likely);
• Collapsed lung due to a procedure or surgery in or around the chest (54.8 percent less likely);
• Pressure sores or bed sores acquired in the hospital (69.4 percent less likely);
• Catheter-related bloodstream infections acquired in the hospital (72 percent less likely).