17 MA Hospitals Earn 'A' Grade In New Safety Ranking

A new hospital safety report released Thursday shows 17 hospitals in Massachusetts earned “A” grades based on their ability to protect their patients from often preventable harm.

The Leapfrog Group’s Fall 2025 Hospital Safety Grades are a biannual ranking that assigns a “A,” “B,” “C,” “D” or “F” to all general hospitals in the United States based on their ability to protect patients from medical errors, accidents, injuries and infections. The Leapfrog Group, a watchdog founded 25 years ago, says it aims to improve American health care through transparency.

The report also named “Straight A” hospitals — those earning an A grade for more than two years in a row.

Medical errors, accidents, injuries and infections are largely preventable problems that harm one in four hospital inpatients and cause as many as 250,000 deaths each year, according to The Leapfrog Group. The Safety Grade reports have been a cornerstone of that effort, the group says.

See also: Baby Formula Recalled In MA; 15 Infant Botulism Cases Reported In U.S.

Hospitals in Massachusetts that earned A grades were:

• Brigham And Women's Hospital in Boston (Straight A)
• Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston (Straight A)
• Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Newton (Straight A)
• Saint Anne's Hospital in Fall River (Straight A)
• UMass Memorial Health Milford Regional Medical Center in Milford (Straight A)
• Winchester Hospital in Winchester (Straight A)
• Anna Jaques Hospital in Newburyport
• Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield
• Baystate Wing Hospital in Palmer
• Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield
• Boston Medical Center in Boston
• Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital in Jamaica Plain
• Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis
• Holyoke Medical Center in Holyoke
• Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge
• Salem Hospital in Salem
• Sturdy Memorial Hospital in Attleboro

Additionally, 16 hospitals in Massachusetts earned B grades, 16 received C grades and four received D grades.

The Leapfrog Group for the first time in the history of its report cards looked at the performance of hospitals that are part of larger networks of health care facilities that are owned or managed under a single parent organization.

See also: Here’s Where Massachusetts Ranks In Terms Of Obesity

“We want to understand if system leadership accelerates patient safety or not,” Leah Binder, Leapfrog’s president and CEO, said in a news release.

The analysis found that 90% of hospitals with a fall 2025 Safety Grade are part of a health system. Among A hospitals, the chance of being system-affiliated is slightly higher, at 94%. The same held true for Straight A hospitals, with 95% of the 358 Straight A hospitals part of health systems.

All 11 hospitals that have earned an A for every grading round since 2012 are affiliated with health systems.

The 10 health systems with the highest total number of A hospitals and Straight A hospitals in the fall 2025 report are:

1. Nashville, Tennessee-based HCA Healthcare (51 A and 18 Straight A hospitals)
2. Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health (49 A and 24 Straight A hospitals)
3. Altamonte Springs, Florida-based AdventHealth (29 A and 21 Straight A hospitals)
4. Oakland, California-based Kaiser Permanente (27 A and 12 Straight A hospitals)
5. Charlotte, North Carolina-based AdvocateHealth (24 A hospitals and 1 Straight A hospital)
6. Ontario, California-based Prime Healthcare Services (24 A and 11 Straight A hospitals)
7. Falls Church, Virginia-based Defense Health Agency (18 A hospitals, and no Straight A hospitals due to the fact that military hospitals haven’t been eligible for a Safety grade for five rounds or more; they will become eligible in 2026)
8. Brentwood, Tennessee-based Lifepoint Health (16 A and 2 Straight A hospitals)
9. New York City-based Northwell Health (15 A and 3 Straight A hospitals)
10. Sacramento-based Sutter Health (15 A and 3 Straight A hospitals)

Also according to the report, the top five states for the largest percentages of A hospitals are Utah, Virginia, New Jersey, Connecticut and North Carolina, respectively.

Massachusetts ranked 19th in the percentage of A hospitals on the ranking.

Four states — Iowa, North Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming — have no A hospitals.

See also: 6 Now Dead, More Ill In Widespread Listeria Outbreak: What To Know In MA