Maine hospitals get good grades in latest Leapfrog ratings

Photo / William Hall Northern Light Mercy Hospital in Portland received a grade of "B" on the most recent safety grading by the Leapfrog Group.

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By Staff

The Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit watchdog group that monitors the quality of U.S. health care, is out with its latest grades for hospital safety — and Maine hospitals are again near the top of the class.

Nine of 16 evaluated hospitals in the state received an “A,” and Maine ranked No. 3 in the U.S. for the highest percentage of facilities receiving the top grade.

The A list comprises: Cary Medical Center, Caribou; Central Maine Medical Center, Lewiston; Franklin Memorial Hospital, Farmington; Maine Medical Center, Portland; Mid Coast Hospital, Brunswick; Northern Light A.R. Gould Hospital, Presque Isle; Northern Light Inland Hospital, Waterville; Pen Bay Medical Center, Rockport; and Southern Maine Healthcare, Biddeford.

Leapfrog bases its ratings on hospitals’ prevention of medical errors and other harms to patients in their care. Using a peer-reviewed methodology, the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade considers 27 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign grades to more than 2,700 U.S. acute-care hospitals twice per year.

In this spring’s grading, Leapfrog said, 33% hospitals received an A, 24% received a B, 35% received a C, 7% received a D, and less than 1% received an F.

All of the A recipients in Maine also received that grade in the last evaluation, conducted in the fall of 2020. Some of the hospitals have earned a string of A's.

In Portland, Maine Medical Center had gotten five previous B's before receiving its two recent A grades. But Northern Light Mercy Hospital went in the opposite direction, getting B's this spring and last fall after five consecutive A's.

In Maine, the B recipients were: Northern Light Mercy Hospital, Portland; St. Joseph Hospital, Bangor; St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center, Lewiston; and York Hospital, York.

Grades of C went to: MaineGeneral Medical Center, Augusta; Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center, Bangor; and Northern Light Maine Coast Hospital, Ellsworth.

For more details about Maine's grades, click here.

"This pandemic emphasized how much we rely on America's health care workforce," Leapfrog President and CEO Leah Binder said. "Our straight 'A' hospitals remind us how preparedness prwotected their patients as well as their workforce and created a high level of organizational resilience. As we emerge from the pandemic, hospitals need to double down on safety, so they save lives, strengthen their organizations, and position themselves to withstand the next crisis.”