5 rural Maine hospitals named tops in the US, more than in any other state

Courtesy / MaineHealth Waldo County General Hospital, in Belfast, is one of five Maine facilities named among the country's top rural hospitals. Part of the MaineHealth system, the hospital was the only one in the state to make the list last year.

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By Staff

The Leapfrog Group, a national hospital watchdog organization, on Tuesday announced the winners of its annual Top Hospital Awards, and five Maine acute care facilities were named as the country’s top rural ones. That's up from just a single recipient last year.

Only 19 rural hospitals throughout the U.S. were recognized by Leapfrog in 2020, according to a news release. More of them are in Maine than in any of the other 11 states on the list.

The Maine hospitals recognized by Leapfrog are:

LincolnHealth, in Damariscotta
Northern Light Blue Hill Hospital
Pen Bay Medical Center, in Rockport
Stephens Memorial Hospital, in Norway
Waldo County General Hospital, in Belfast.

In the 2019 awards, only Waldo County General made the list.

The Top Hospital Awards, which began in 2006, recognize the country’s highest-quality hospitals as identified through the annual Leapfrog Hospital Survey, which this year surveyed 2,600 facilities nationwide.

Those that have received an A in the most recent survey grading are eligible. The awards are based on additional, more exacting criteria, and are given to hospitals that typically have fewer medication errors, higher-quality maternity care and lower infection rates compared to their peers, according to Leapfrog.

Less than 5% of all eligible facilities receive the award, widely considered among the most prestigious for American hospitals, the group said.

This year, Leapfrog recognized a total of 105 hospitals in four award categories. In addition to the top rural hospitals, the group honored 29 general hospitals, 48 teaching hospitals and nine children’s hospitals.

Besides the rural honorees, no other Maine hospitals made the roster. Across New England, no other state made the top rural list, and only Massachusetts hospitals received as many awards in any category as hospitals in Maine did.

Despite last year’s showing, Maine has fared well on the Top Hospitals list. In 2018, the state was home to seven of the 17 top rural hospitals, and in the previous year there were seven Maine honorees among 18 nationwide.

Commenting on the 2020 recipients, Leapfrog Group President and CEO Leah Binder said in a news release, "This is an extraordinary year for all of us, but for hospitals, history broke down doors and barged right in. In the pandemic, we needed our hospitals to save lives, comfort families, and support communities, schools, and the economy. American hospitals were there for us. It is why Leapfrog holds hospitals to high standards; they are so critical to the future of our country in every way imaginable."

About the Leapfrog Group

Founded in 2000 by large employers and other purchasers, the Leapfrog Group is a national, Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit driving a movement for giant leaps forward in the quality and safety of American health care. The flagship Leapfrog Hospital Survey and new Leapfrog Ambulatory Surgery Center Survey collect and report hospital and ASC performance. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade assigns letter grades to hospitals based on their record of patient safety, helping consumers protect themselves and their families from errors, injuries, accidents and infections.