7 Minnesota Hospitals Got A ‘D’ For Patient Safety—Is Yours On The List?

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

The Leapfrog Group’s Spring 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.

Out of 45 Minnesota hospitals evaluated, four received an A grade, five received a B, 29 received a C, and seven received a D in the Spring 2025 safety rankings. Most hospitals landed in the C range, while only Mayo-affiliated facilities earned A grades.

Grade A

• Mayo Clinic Health System-Austin (Austin)
• Mayo Clinic Health System-Fairmont (Fairmont)
• Mayo Clinic Health System-Mankato (Mankato)
• Mayo Clinic-Rochester (Rochester)

Grade B

• Abbott Northwestern Hospital (Minneapolis)
• Buffalo Hospital (Buffalo)
• CentraCare - St. Cloud Hospital (St. Cloud)
• Hutchinson Health Hospital (Hutchinson)
• Mayo Clinic Health System-Red Wing (Red Wing)

Grade C

• Alomere Health (Alexandria)
• Cambridge Medical Center (Cambridge)
• Essentia Health St. Mary's - Detroit Lakes (Detroit Lakes)
• Essentia Health-St Joseph's Medical Center (Brainerd)
• Essentia Health-St Mary's Medical Center (Duluth)
• Fairview Range (Hibbing)
• Grand Itasca Clinic & Hospital (Grand Rapids)
• Hennepin Healthcare (Minneapolis)
• Lake Region Healthcare Hospital (Fergus Falls)
• Lakeview Hospital (Stillwater)
• M Health Fairview Lakes Medical Center - Wyoming (Wyoming)
• M Health Fairview Northland Medical Center (Princeton)
• M Health Fairview Ridges Hospital (Burnsville)
• M Health Fairview Southdale Hospital (Edina)
• M Health Fairview St. John's Hospital (Maplewood)
• M Health Fairview Woodwinds Hospital - Woodbury (Woodbury)
• Mercy Hospital (Coon Rapids)
• Mercy Hospital - Unity Campus (Fridley)
• Methodist Hospital (St. Louis Park)
• North Memorial Health - Maple Grove Hospital (Maple Grove)
• Northfield Hospital (Northfield)
• Olmsted Medical Center (Rochester)
• Regions Hospital (Saint Paul)
• Ridgeview Medical Center (Waconia)
• Sanford Bemidji Medical Center (Bemidji)
• St. Francis Regional Medical Center (Shakopee)
• St. Luke's Hospital (Duluth)
• United Hospital (Saint Paul)
• Winona Health (Winona)

Grade D

• Allina Health Faribault Medical Center (Faribault)
• CentraCare - Rice Memorial Hospital (Willmar)
• Essentia Health - Virginia (Virginia)
• M Health Fairview University of Minnesota Medical Center - West Bank East (Minneapolis)
• North Memorial Health - Robbinsdale Hospital (Robbinsdale)
• Owatonna Hospital (Owatonna)
• Sanford Worthington Medical Center (Worthington)

You can see the full rankings here.

Across the nation, 11 hospitals have earned "A" grades on all 27 evaluation rounds over the 13 years of the report card.

They include: Mayo Clinic-Phoenix in Arizona; French Hospital Medical Center and Kaiser Permanente Orange County-Anaheim Medical Center in California; Endeavor Health Elmhurst Hospital, Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital and University of Chicago Medical Center in Illinois; Saint Anne’s Hospital (Massachusetts); Inova Loudoun Hospital, Sentara CarePlex Hospital and Sentara Leigh Hospital in Virginia; and Virginia Mason Medical Center in Washington.

Leah Binder, the president and chief executive of The Leapfrog Group, said “A” grades should be a source of pride for hospitals, but she warned them not to “rest on that laurel.”

“Patient safety is a relentless, never-ending quest to put patients first,” she said in a news release. “That’s why Leapfrog is highlighting the hospitals across the U.S. that have earned Straight A’s for over two years. Sustaining an A over multiple years reflects a deep-rooted commitment to patient safety.”

The top five states with the highest share of Straight A hospitals since spring 2023 are Utah (29 percent), Connecticut (29 percent), New Jersey (27 percent), Rhode Island (22 percent) and Virginia (20 percent).

States with no Straight A hospitals for consistent performance over the past five grading cycles are Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, Wyoming, and Washington, D.C.

The states with the highest percentage of A Grades for spring 2025 are Utah, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Connecticut, South Carolina, and Virginia.