Patient safety falling short: States where hospitals need improvement – a slideshow

Author(s):

Key Takeaways

The Leapfrog Group's fall 2024 report assesses patient safety in nearly 3,000 U.S. hospitals, revealing disparities in safety measures.
Many hospitals are enhancing patient safety, but significant efforts are needed to prevent medical errors and infections.
Some states have fewer than 20% of hospitals with an "A" grade, with four states having none achieving this rating.
Two states improved from 0% "A" grades, while a state with a renowned health system saw its percentage halved.

Some states have few or no hospitals with ‘A’ grades for patient safety, according to the Leapfrog Group’s fall 2024 report card.

Around the nation, there are hospitals with physicians and other clinicians doing their best to care for patients.

But not all facilities and health care systems are equal when it comes to preventing medical errors, accidents and infections.

The Leapfrog Group published its fall 2024 Hospital Safety Grade, a ranking of almost 3,000 hospitals across the 50 states. The good news: Many hospitals are increasing their patient safety measures.

The bad news: There still is much to be done to make sure patients who go to the hospital in bad health don’t come out in worse health.

This slideshow presents a dozen states that had the fewest number of hospitals – less than 20% – getting grade “A,” the highest rating by the Leapfrog Group. Slides include the rank among the 50 states, the fall 2024 grade, the percentage of A hospitals, and the marks and percentages for spring this year. All data was compiled by the Leapfrog Group.

Spoiler alert: The bottom four states had no hospitals with A grades. Two states improved from the spring 2024 percentage of 0% of hospitals. And one state, home to a world-class, household name health system, saw its percentage get cut in half. Which states were those? Click through to find out.