New VA Hospital Safety Ratings Released: See Best, Worst

VIRGINIA — Several Virginia hospitals received top grades in protecting patient safety, even as the average risk of contracting deadly infections remained elevated nationwide after spiking to a five-year high during the pandemic, according to the spring 2023 hospital safety grades released Wednesday by The Leapfrog Group, an independent nonprofit health care watchdog.

Patient experience measures — like communication from doctors — also declined, according to the report. Leapfrog said the findings should be a wake-up call to hospitals nationwide.

Despite several hospitals receiving an "A" grade, Virginia moved from No. 2 overall in fall 2022 to No. 9 in spring 2023 in the number of “A” hospitals, with 39 percent in the "A" category in spring 2023 compared to 52 percent last fall.

New Jersey was No. 1 this spring with 51.5 percent of its hospitals with "A" grades, compared to a No. 6 ranking for the state last fall. The top state last fall, New Hampshire, dropped to No. 17 this spring, with only 30.8 percent of its hospitals with an "A" grade.

The Leapfrog Group uses an academic grading scale with five letter grades to score nearly 3,000 hospitals nationwide 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.

In Virginia, 27 hospitals received an A grade, 28 hospitals received a B, and 15 hospitals received a C. No hospitals in Virginia received a D grade or an F. Last fall, one hospital received a D grade.

Here are the spring ratings for hospitals in Virginia, with their fall 2022 rating in parentheses, according to Leapfrog:

A

• Winchester Medical Center (A)
• Parham Doctors' Hospital (B)
• Augusta Health (A)
• John Randolph Medical Center (A)
• Warren Memorial Hospital (A)
• Smyth County Community Hospital (A)
• Inova Alexandria Hospital (A)
• Inova Loudoun Hospital (A)
• UVA Prince William Medical Center (A)
• Sentara Leigh Hospital (A)
• LewisGale Medical Center (A)
• Riverside Regional Medical Center (B)
• Inova Fairfax Hospital (A)
• Bon Secours Memorial Regional Medical Center (B)
• Retreat Doctors' Hospital (A)
• Carilion Franklin Memorial Hospital (B)
• Sentara CarePlex Hospital (A)
• Inova Fair Oaks Hospital (A)
• Reston Hospital Center (A)
• LewisGale Hospital - Montgomery (A)
• Henrico Doctors' Hospital (A)
• Sentara Princess Anne Hospital (B)
• Inova Mount Vernon Hospital (A)
• LewisGale Hospital - Alleghany (A)
• Riverside Walter Reed Hospital (A)
• Riverside Doctors' Hospital Williamsburg (B)
• UVA Haymarket Medical Center (A)

B

• Sentara Norfolk General Hospital (A)
• University of Virginia Medical Center (B)
• Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center (B)
• Novant Health UVA Health System Culpeper Medical Center (A)
• Centra Virginia Baptist Hospital (B)
• CJW Medical Center - Johnston-Willis Campus (B)
• Riverside Shore Memorial Hospital (A)
• Mary Immaculate Hospital (B)
• Carilion New River Valley Medical Center (A)
• Sentara Obici Hospital (A)
• Virginia Hospital Center--Arlington Health System (A)
• Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital (C)
• Bon Secours St. Mary's Hospital of Richmond (B)
• Sentara Williamsburg Regional Medical Center (A)
• Danville Regional Medical Center (C)
• Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital (A)
• VCU Health Tappahannock Hospital (A)
• Centra Bedford Memorial Hospital (B)
• Centra Southside Community Hospital (B)
• Centra Lynchburg General Hospital (B)
• Wythe County Community Hospital (B)
• CJW Medical Center - Chippenham Campus (B)
• Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center (A)
• Twin County Regional Healthcare (A)
• LewisGale Hospital - Pulaski (A)
• Buchanan General Hospital (A)
• Bon Secours St. Francis Medical Center (B)
• StoneSprings Hospital Center (B)

C

• Sentara Halifax Regional Hospital (B)
• Sentara RMH Medical Center (C)
• Mary Washington Hospital (C)
• Fauquier Hospital (D)
• Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital (C)
• Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center (C)
• Johnston Memorial Hospital (C)
• Clinch Valley Medical Center (A)
• Southside Regional Medical Center (C)
• Sovah Health Martinsville (C)
• Southampton Memorial Hospital (C)
• VCU Health Community Memorial Hospital (C)
• Lonesome Pine Hospital (no grade)
• Chesapeake Regional Medical Center (B)
• Stafford Hospital (B)

High rates of three health care-associated infections, or HAIs, “should stop hospitals in their tracks,” Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, said in a news release, noting that “infections like these can be life for death for some patients.”

“We recognize the tremendous strain the pandemic put on hospitals and their workforce, but alarming findings like these indicate hospitals must recommit to patient safety and build more resilience,” Binder said.

The problematic infections are Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA; central line-associated bloodstream infections, or CLABSI; and catheter-associated urinary tract infections, or CAUTI. When compared to rankings that covered the period immediately before the COVID-19 outbreak, the analysis found an increased infection ratio for all three infections. The spring 2023 rankings cover late 2021 and 2022.

However, another such infection, Clostridioides difficile, or C.Diff, improved and there was no significant change for surgical site infections post surgery, the report said. The standardized infection ratio used to measure changes in the rates of infections compares the actual number of reported infections to the predicted number at each hospital.

“Not only are HAIs among the leading causes of death in the U.S., they also increase length of hospitalization stays and add to costs,” Binder said. “Our pre-pandemic data showed improved HAI measures, but the spring 2023 Safety Grade data spotlights how hospital responses to the pandemic led to a decline in patient safety and HAI management.”

Patient experience measures included communication with nurses and doctors, staff responsiveness, and communication about medicine and discharge information. Nationally, the average of all five measures declined when compared to pre-pandemic measures, according to the report.

RELATED: Virginia's Safest Hospitals: Latest Rankings Released For Fall