Pair of MaineHealth hospitals earn top 'quality and safety' honors from Leapfrog

The Malone Family Tower is the off-white building in front of Maine Medical Center's older building.

File Photo / Courtesy MaineHealth Maine Medical Center was named one of 75 top teaching hospitals nationwide. It also capped a six-year expansion and modernization project with the completion of the Malone Family Tower.

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By Laurie Schreiber

The Leapfrog Group, a national quality evaluator in Washington, D.C., rated two MaineHealth hospitals in its list of top hospitals for quality and safety in 2024.

MaineHealth Maine Medical Center Portland was named a top teaching hospital for a third straight year.

MaineHealth Pen Bay Hospital in Rockport earned top rural hospital for the second time since 2021.

Nationwide, fewer than 6% of the nearly 2,400 hospitals evaluated received a top hospital award, according to a news release.

Maine Medical Center one of 75 top teaching hospitals and Pen Bay was among 15 top rural hospitals.

“As a teaching hospital, MaineHealth Maine Medical Center has a mission of providing high-quality affordable care, educating tomorrow's caregivers and researching better ways to provide care,” said Britt Crewse, president of MaineHealth’s southern region, which includes Maine Medical Center.

MaineHealth’s Pen Bay and Waldo Hospitals are led by Denise Needham.

The quality of patient care across many areas of hospital performance is considered in establishing the qualifications for the award, including infection rates, practices for safer surgery, maternity care and the hospital’s capacity to prevent medication errors.

Hospitals that receive the awards must rank top among their peers on the Leapfrog Hospital Survey and achieve top performance in their category.

“MaineHealth puts an emphasis on the quality and safety of the care our teams deliver and have launched a number of initiatives to standardize our practice across the health system,” said Dr. Omar Hasan, MaineHealth’s chief quality officer.

Maine’s largest health care system, MaineHealth includes a Level 1 trauma medical center, eight licensed hospitals, pediatric care services, a behavioral health care network, diagnostic services, and home health, hospice and senior care services. It has over 2,000 providers and 23,000 employees overall.