Newton-Wellesley Hospital Receives ‘B’ Safety Grade For 2022

NEWTON, MA — Newton-Wellesley Hospital has received a “B” in the Spring 2022 Hospital Safety Grades report released Tuesday by The Leapfrog Group, an independent nonprofit health care watchdog group.

The latest ratings reflect care during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Leapfrog Group said its and other groups' research showed the pandemic reversed years of progress in patient safety.

The pandemic has had a negative effect on "health care delivery at every level and setting, from staffing shortages to increased infections to the very care patients receive," according to the Adult Patient Experience at Acute Care Hospitals survey, also released Tuesday by The Leapfrog Group.

"The health care workforce has faced unprecedented levels of pressure during the pandemic, and as a result, patients' experience with their care appears to have suffered," Leapfrog Group president and CEO Leah Binder said in a news release. "We commend the workforce for their heroic efforts these past few years and now strongly urge hospital leadership to recommit to improved care — from communication to responsiveness — and get back on track with patient safety outcomes."

In Massachusetts, 30 hospitals received an "A" grade, 14 hospitals received a "B" grade, and 13 hospitals received a "C" grade. No hospitals in Massachusetts received a "D" or an "F" grade.

Here are the rankings, according to Leapfrog:

A

Addison Gilbert Hospital
Baystate Franklin Medical Center
Baystate Noble Hospital
Berkshire Medical Center
Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital Plymouth
Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Milton
Beverly Hospital
Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital
Brigham And Women's Hospital
Cooley Dickinson Hospital
Emerson Hospital
Holy Family Hospital - Haverhill
Holy Family Hospital - Methuen
Lahey Hospital and Medical Center
Lawrence General Hospital
Marlborough Hospital
Massachusetts General Hospital
Melrose-Wakefield Hospital
Mercy Medical Center of Springfield
Milford Regional Medical Center
Morton Hospital
Mount Auburn Hospital
Nashoba Valley Medical Center
North Shore Medical Center Salem Hospital
Saint Anne's Hospital
South Shore Hospital
Steward Good Samaritan Medical Center, Inc.
Tufts Medical Center
Winchester Hospital

B

Baystate Wing Hospital
Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital - Needham
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Boston Medical Center
Cape Cod Hospital
CHA Everett Hospital
HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital
HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital
Heywood Hospital
Lowell General Hospital - Main Campus
Lowell General Hospital - Saints Campus
Newton-Wellesley Hospital
St Vincent Hospital
St. Elizabeth's Medical Center
Sturdy Memorial Hospital

C

Anna Jaques Hospital
Baystate Medical Center
Carney Hospital
CHA Cambridge Hospital
Charlton Memorial Hospital
Falmouth Hospital
Harrington Memorial Hospital
Holyoke Medical Center
Metrowest Medical Center
Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital
St. Luke's Hospital
Tobey Hospital
U Mass Memorial Medical Center - Memorial Campus
U Mass Memorial Medical Center - University Campus

The letter grades assigned to nearly 3,000 U.S general hospitals were based 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, accidents, injuries and infections.

Included in the 30 are five that research has shown to directly affect patient outcomes, but can be improved with greater communication between caregivers and patients — the number of central line-associated bloodstream infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, infections from colon surgery, MRSA (Staphylococcus) blood laboratory-identified events, and facility-wide inpatient diarrhea events.

When there's communication about medications, for example, that can lead to fewer hospitalizations for conditions such as sepsis and blood clots, fewer complications, and decreases in the incidence of respiratory failure, Leapfrog said.

Among the findings:

• Thirty-three percent of hospitals received an "A," 24 percent received a "B," 36 percent received a "C," 7 percent received a "D." and fewer than 1 percent received an "F."
• The states with the highest percentages of "A" hospitals are North Carolina, Virginia, Utah, Colorado, and Michigan.
• There were no "A" hospitals in Wyoming, West Virginia, North Dakota or the District of Columbia.

To determine each hospital's grade, a panel of medical experts selected 30 evidence-based measures of patient safety such as postoperative sepsis, blood leakage, and kidney injury. They then determined the weight of each measure based on evidence, opportunity for improvement, and patient impact.

Data on each measure was collected through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Information from the Leapfrog Hospital Survey, available to all hospitals to complete, also affects grades.

Currently, Leapfrog does not assign grades to military or Veterans Administration hospitals, critical access hospitals, specialty hospitals, children’s hospitals or outpatient surgery centers.

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade methodology has been peer-reviewed and published in the Journal of Patient Safety.

The full methodology for the 2022 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is available online.