35 Virginia Hospitals Receive A Grade For Patient Safety, 2nd-Highest Percentage In US

VIRGINIA — Hospitals in Virginia and nationwide made significant improvements in preventing a “disturbing” increase in hospital infections during the coronavirus pandemic, The Leapfrog Group said with the release Monday of its Fall 2023 Hospital Safety Grades Report.

The Leapfrog Group, an independent nonprofit health care watchdog group, used an academic grading scale with five letter grades to score nearly 3,000 hospitals nationwide on how well they prevent medical errors, accidents and infections. Overall, the report shows hospitals significantly reduced infections after the pandemic spike, but patient-reported experiences declined for the second year in a row.

Among Virginia hospitals evaluated in the report, 35 received the gold-standard “A” safety grade. Another 21 earned a “B,” 12 earned a “C” and one earned a “D.” No Virginia hospitals received an F.

Virginia hospitals earning “A” grades are:

• Winchester Medical Center, Winchester
• University of Virginia Medical Center, Charlottesville, upgrade from B
• Parham Doctors' Hospital, Richmond
• Augusta Health, Fishersville
• UVA Health Culpeper Medical Center, Culpeper, upgrade from B
• CJW Medical Center - Johnston-Willis Campus, Richmond, upgrade from B
• Warren Memorial Hospital, Front Royal
• Inova Alexandria Hospital, Alexandria
• Carilion New River Valley Medical Center, Christiansburg, upgrade from B
• Inova Loudoun Hospital, Leesburg
• Sentara Obici Hospital, Suffolk, upgrade from B
• UVA Prince William Medical Center, Manassas
• Sentara Leigh Hospital, Norfolk
• LewisGale Medical Center, Salem
• Riverside Regional Medical Center, Newport News
• Inova Fairfax Hospital, Falls Church
• Sentara Williamsburg Regional Medical Center, Williamsburg
• Retreat Doctors' Hospital, Richmond
• VCU Health Tappahannock Hospital, Tappahannock, upgrade from B
• Centra Bedford Memorial Hospital, Bedford, upgrade from B
• Centra Southside Community Hospital, Farmville, upgrade from B
• Sentara CarePlex Hospital, Hampton
• Inova Fair Oaks Hospital, Fairfax
• Reston Hospital Center, Reston
• LewisGale Hospital - Montgomery, Blacksburg
• CJW Medical Center - Chippenham Campus, Richmond, upgrade from B
• LewisGale Hospital - Pulaski, Pulaski, upgrade from B
• Henrico Doctors' Hospital, Richmond
• Sentara Princess Anne Hospital, Virginia Beach
• Inova Mount Vernon Hospital, Alexandria
• LewisGale Hospital - Alleghany, Low Moor
• Riverside Walter Reed Hospital, Gloucester
• Riverside Doctors' Hospital Williamsburg, Williamsburg
• UVA Haymarket Medical Center, Haymarket
• StoneSprings Hospital Center, Dulles, upgrade from B

Inova Health System, which runs several Northern Virginia hospitals, said its five hospitals received "A" grades. Inova Loudoun Hospital is only one of 18 in the nation to receive "A" grades since The Leapfrog Group's ratings began — 24 consecutive times.

"I am immensely proud that all five Inova hospitals received straight A grades from the Leapfrog Group again this year," said Dr. Chapy Venkatesan, chief quality officer at Inova. "This remarkable accomplishment is not just an accolade; it is a reflection of our unwavering commitment patient safety."

All four UVA Health medical centers also received top grades, including two in Prince William County.

"It is a tremendous honor for all four of our hospitals to earn an ‘A’ from Leapfrog, and this demonstrates our commitment to provide the highest-quality care to patients across Virginia and beyond, regardless of where those patients are seen," said Dr. K. Craig Kent, CEO of UVA Health and executive vice president for health affairs at the University of Virginia. "As we continue the implementation of our 10-year strategic plan, we are excited to expand access to the excellent care our team provides to even more patients."

The Leapfrog Group grades hospitals twice a year. In the fall report, the first report using post-pandemic data, 30 percent of hospitals nationwide earned an “A,” 24 percent earned a “B,” 39 percent earned a “C,” 7 percent earned a “D,” and fewer than 1 percent earned an “F.”

Virginia improved from ninth to second in the nation for hospitals with "A" grades, as half of its hospitals received an "A" grade. The 10 states with the highest number of “A” hospitals are Utah, Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Connecticut, Montana, Tennessee, Florida and Texas.

States that had no “A” hospitals are Vermont, Wyoming, Delaware and North Dakota, as well as Washington, D.C.

More than 85 percent of hospitals saw decreases in the three most dangerous infections — MRSA, central-line bloodstream infections and catheter-associated urinary tract infections.

• 19 percent improved in all three infection measures;
• 66 percent improved in at least one infection measure;
• 16 percent continued to worsen or did not improve.

“Now that we have pre- and post-pandemic data for patient safety measures, we are encouraged by the improvement in infections and applaud hospitals for reversing the disturbing infection spike we saw during the pandemic,” Leapfrog president and CEO Leah Binder said in a news release.

However, Binder said the continued decline in patient experiences is “deeply concerning.” Hospitals in all states have seen a significant decline in reported patient experiences since the fall of 2021, the report said.

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.