Northwestern Medical Hospitals In McHenry, Huntley Receive Top Marks

MCHENRY COUNTY, IL — Two local hospitals received top marks in the fall grading of more than 3,000 hospitals that were evaluated this fall across the country and that were released in a new report on Wednesday.

Northwestern Medicine McHenry Hospital, 4201 Medical Center Dr., McHenry, and Northwestern Medical Huntley Hospital, 10400 Haligus Rd., Huntley both received ‘A’ grades in the report, which was released by The Leapfrog Group on Wednesday.

The Leapfrog Group, an independent nonprofit healthcare watchdog group, used an academic grading scale with five letter grades to score nearly 3,000 hospitals nationwide 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.

In Illinois, 27 hospitals received an A, 24 hospitals received a B, 45 hospitals received a C, and seven hospitals received a D grade. One hospital received an F.

RELATED: Fall Hospital Safety Grades: Which IL Hospitals Got Top Marks

Across the region, Northwestern Medicine Kishwaukee Hospital received an ‘A’ while OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford received a ‘B’ and Advocate Conley Hospital in Libertyville and UW Health Swedish American Hospital in Rockford was graded with a ‘C’, the report said.

With the release of its fall report, The Leapfrog Group has analyzed hospital safety data for a decade. Most hospitals have improved over time under more public scrutiny, Leapfrog Group President and CEO Leah Binder said in a news release.

“For a long time, the healthcare community tried to improve safety, but progress stalled,” Binder said. “The big difference over this decade is that for the first time, we publicly reported each hospital’s record on patient safety, and that galvanized the kind of change we all hoped for.

“It’s not enough change, but we are on the right track,” she said.