New NH Hospital Safety Ratings: 4 Get 'A' Grade, 3 Get 'D'

NEW HAMPSHIRE — Four New Hampshire hospitals received top safety marks while others didn't quite measure up in The Leapfrog Group's annual fall safety grades.

The nonprofit health care watchdog group grades hospitals twice a year, assigning letter grades from "A" to "F" based on each hospital's ability to protect patients from preventable errors, accidents, injuries and infections.

The fall 2021 Hospital Safety Grade represents the largest set of hospitals ever graded with grades assigned to 2,901 facilities.

In New Hampshire, four hospitals received an "A" grade, three hospitals received a "B" grade, three hospitals received a "C" grade and three hospitals received a "D" grade. No New Hampshire hospitals received an "F" grade.

Here are the rankings, according to Leapfrog:

Hospitals receiving a 'A' grade

• Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center
• Frisbie Memorial Hospital
• Portsmouth Regional Hospital
• Wentworth-Douglass Hospital

Hospitals receiving a 'B' grade

• Exeter Hospital
• Lakes Region General Hospital
• Parkland Medical Center

Hospitals receiving a 'C' grade

• Concord Hospital
• Elliot Hospital
• St. Joseph Hospital of Nashua

Hospitals receiving a 'D' grade

• Catholic Medical Center
• Cheshire Medical Center
• Southern New Hampshire Medical Center

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 2021 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is available online.

Findings from the fall 2021 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade include:

• Thirty-two percent of hospitals received an "A” grade; 26 percent received a "B," 35 percent received a "C," 7 percent received a "D," and less than 1 percent received an "F.”

• The five states with the highest percentages of "A" hospitals are Virginia, North Carolina, Idaho, Massachusetts and Colorado.

• There were no "A" hospitals in Delaware, Washington, D.C. and North Dakota.