Wisconsin Hospital Safety Grades In 2022: The Best And Worst

WISCONSIN — A handful of Wisconsin hospitals had high marks in a safety rating, despite health care services taking significant hits from the COVID-19 pandemic over the last two years. Not all hospitals in the Badger State were winners and a few saw their grades sink 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, and some hospitals saw their grades rise or fall since 2020. Patient safety backslid after years of progress, according to Leapfrog's study.

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 Patient Experience During the Pandemic: Adult Inpatient Care report, 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 Wisconsin, 11 hospitals received an "A" grade, 8 hospitals received a "B" grade, 41 hospitals received a "C" grade and 5 hospitals received a "D" grade. On the bright side, no hospitals received an "F" grade.

Here are the rankings, according to Leapfrog:

A

• Bellin Memorial Hospital, Green Bay
• Froedtert Menomonee Falls Hospital
• HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital, Eau Claire
• HSHS St. Mary's Hospital of Green Bay
• HSHS St. Vincent Hospital of Green Bay
• Marshfield Medical Center - Eau Claire
• Mayo Clinic Health System - Eau Claire
• Mayo Clinic Health System - La Crosse
• Mile Bluff Medical Center, Mauston
• Monroe Clinic Hospital
• Watertown Regional Medical Center

B

• Aurora Lakeland Medical Center, Elkhorn
• Beloit Memorial Hospital
• Froedtert Kenosha Hospital
• Froedtert Pleasant Prairie Hospital
• Marshfield Medical Center Beaver Dam
• Mercyhealth Hospital and Trauma Center - Janesville
• ThedaCare Regional Medical Center - Appleton
• UnityPoint Health - Meriter

C

• Ascension Columbia St Mary's Hospital Milwaukee
• Ascension Columbia St Mary's Hospital Ozaukee
• Ascension NE Wisconsin - Mercy Campus, Oshkosh
• Ascension NE Wisconsin - St Elizabeth Campus, Appleton
• Ascension SE Wisconsin Hospital - Elmbrook Campus, Brookfield
• Ascension SE Wisconsin Hospital - Franklin Campus
• Ascension SE Wisconsin Hospital - St. Joseph Campus, Milwaukee
• Aspirus Divine Savior Hospital, Portage
• Aspirus Rhinelander Hospital
• Aspirus Riverview Hospital, Wisconsin Rapids
• Aspirus Stevens Point Hospital
• Aspirus Wausau Hospital
• Aurora BayCare Medical Center, Green Bay
• Aurora Medical Center - Manitowoc County, Two Rivers
• Aurora Medical Center Bay Area, Marinette
• Aurora Medical Center Burlington
• Aurora Medical Center Grafton
• Aurora Medical Center of Kenosha
• Aurora Medical Center of Oshkosh
• Aurora Medical Center of Washington County, Hartford
• Aurora Medical Center Summit
• Aurora Sheboygan Memorial Medical Center
• Aurora West Allis Medical Center
• Fort Memorial Hospital, Fort Atkinson
• Froedtert Hospital, Milwaukee
• Froedtert West Bend Hospital
• Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center, La Crosse
• Holy Family Memorial Medical Center, Manitowoc
• Howard Young Medical Center, Woodruff
• HSHS St. Nicholas Hospital, Sheboygan
• Marshfield Medical Center - Marshfield
• Marshfield Medical Center - Weston
• Marshfield Medical Center - Rice Lake
• ProHealth Oconomowoc Memorial Hospital
• ProHealth Waukesha Memorial Hospital
• SSM Health St. Clare Hospital - Baraboo
• SSM Health St. Mary's Hospital - Janesville
• SSM Health St. Mary's Hospital - Madison
• St. Agnes Hospital, Fond du Lac
• ThedaCare Regional Medical Center - Neenah
• University of Wisconsin Health University Hospital, Madison

D

• Ascension All Saints Hospital - Spring Street Campus, Racine
• Ascension St. Francis Hospital, Milwaukee
• Aurora Sinai Medical Center, Milwaukee
• Aurora St. Luke's Medical Center of Aurora Health Care Metro, Inc, Milwaukee
• Aurora St. Luke's South Shore of Aurora Health Care Metro, Cudahy

Accurately measuring data can be challenging and may not reflect the quality of care or factors that contribute to patient outcomes, Advocate Aurora Health said in a statement.

"Our focus remains on providing the safest care and achieving the best outcomes for our patients," the non-profit added.

Study With Focus On Preventable Errors, Accidents, Injuries And Infections

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.