11 MD Hospitals Get 'A' Rating On New Safety Grades: See Full List

MARYLAND — Eleven Maryland hospitals were given top marks in The Leapfrog Group’s fall 2024 hospital safety grades released Friday.

The Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit health care watchdog group that grades hospitals twice a year, assigns letter grades ranging from “A” to “F,” for 3,000 general hospitals on how well they prevent medical errors, accidents and infections.

Overall, hospitals have made great strides since the pandemic years, when the risk of contracting deadly infections was elevated nationwide, but more work needs to be done, the Leapfrog Group said in a news release.

A total of 26.8% of Maryland's 41 scored hospitals earned an “A.” That's the 30th-best rate in the country.

Overall, Maryland had:

• 15 hospitals that earned “B” grades;
• 15 hospitals that earned “C” grades; and
• No hospitals that earned “D” or “F” grades.

Here are the grades that each hospital received:

• A: Luminis Health Anne Arundel Medical Center (Annapolis)
• A: MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital (Baltimore)
• A: Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (Bethesda)
• A: ChristianaCare - Union Hospital (Elkton)
• A: Meritus Medical Center (Hagerstown)
• A: University of Maryland Charles Regional Medical Center (La Plata)
• A: MedStar St. Mary's Hospital (Leonardtown)
• A: Garrett Regional Medical Center (Oakland)
• A: TidalHealth Peninsula Regional, Inc. (Salisbury)
• A: Adventist HealthCare White Oak Medical Center (Silver Spring)
• A: University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center (Towson)
• B: Mercy Medical Center (Baltimore)
• B: The Johns Hopkins Hospital (Baltimore)
• B: MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center (Baltimore)
• B: MedStar Union Memorial Hospital (Baltimore)
• B: MedStar Harbor Hospital (Baltimore)
• B: Atlantic General Hospital (Berlin)
• B: UPMC Western Maryland (Cumberland)
• B: University of Maryland Shore Medical Center at Easton (Easton)
• B: Adventist HealthCare Fort Washington Medical Center (Fort Washington)
• B: UM Baltimore Washington Medical Center (Glen Burnie)
• B: MedStar Montgomery Medical Center (Olney)
• B: CalvertHealth Medical Center (Prince Frederick)
• B: Northwest Hospital (Randallstown)
• B: Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center (Rockville)
• B: Greater Baltimore Medical Center (Towson)
• C: University of Maryland Medical Center (Baltimore)
• C: Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital (Baltimore)
• C: Sinai Hospital of Baltimore (Baltimore)
• C: Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center (Baltimore)
• C: University of Maryland Medical Center Midtown Campus (Baltimore)
• C: University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Medical Center (Bel Air)
• C: Suburban Hospital (Bethesda)
• C: MedStar Southern Maryland Hospital Center (Clinton)
• C: Johns Hopkins Howard County General Hospital (Columbia)
• C: Frederick Health Hospital (Frederick)
• C: Holy Cross Germantown Hospital (Germantown)
• C: Luminis Health Doctors Community Medical Center (Lanham)
• C: Holy Cross Hospital (Silver Spring)
• C: University of Maryland Capital Region Medical Center (Upper Marlboro)
• C: Carroll Hospital Center (Westminster)

Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital in Baltimore was not scored because it's a children's facility. The University of Maryland Shore Medical Center at Chestertown wasn't graded because it had missing data.

For the third grading cycle, Utah tops the list with the highest percentage of “A” hospitals, followed, respectively, by Virginia, Connecticut, North Carolina, New Jersey, California, Rhode Island, Idaho, Pennsylvania, Colorado and South Carolina. California ranked in the top 10 for the first time since the fall of 2014.

The fall 2024 ratings show improvement in patient safety across several performance measures, including notable improvements on health care-associated infections, hand hygiene and medication safety. Preventable deaths and harm in hospitals have long been a major policy focus for The Leapfrog Group.

While noting the gains hospitals have made in patient safety have saved “countless lives,” Leapfrog Group president and CEO Leah Binder said in a news release that medical centers nationwide need to accelerate their progress “because no one should have to die from a preventable error in a hospital.”

Binder said significant variation in performance continues across U.S. hospitals. For example, four states — Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Vermont — had no “A” hospitals.

“That’s why it’s so important for people to consult grades when making decisions about seeking care,” Binder said. “All hospitals are not the same.”

Nationally, health care-acquired infections reached their highest peak since 2016 in the fall 2022 safety grades, but they have since declined dramatically, according to the report.

Also, central line-associated bloodstream infections were down 38 percent, catheter-associated urinary tract infections were down 36 percent and MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) infections decreased by 34 percent.

For more information on the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades, visit HospitalSafetyGrade.org.