Maine climbs in national hospital safety rankings

Eastern Maine Medical Center building exterior

File photo Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor is among six Maine hospitals that received a top A grade for patient safety from the Leapfrog Group in its latest scorecard.

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By Renee Cordes

With six hospitals making the A-list of top-rated institutions, Maine has jumped in national hospital-safety rankings issued by the Leapfrog Group — rising from No. 18 this spring to ninth in the latest report.

The Pine Tree State earned the distinction because 42.9% of its hospitals received an A for their ability to protect patients from medical errors, accidents, injuries and infections.

Those largely preventable problems harm one in four hospital inpatients and cause as many as 250,000 deaths a year nationwide, according to Leapfrog. The Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group assigns grades of A through F to all hospitals twice a year.

Maine was one of only three New England states to make the top 10, joined by Connecticut at No. 4 and Rhode Island at No. 6. Among other states in the region, New Hampshire was No. 15, Massachusetts was No. 19 and Vermont was was tied with three other states at the very bottom.

While Connecticut ranked among the top five states for percentage of A hospitals, Vermont was among four states without any A-rated hospitals.

Leapfrog evaluates nearly 3,000 general acute-care hospitals nationwide. Out of 2,809 hospitals assessed this fall, 32% received an A, 26% were awarded a B, 33% received a C, eight were graded D and only one received a failing grade of F, according to a spokeswoman for the organization.

Maine grade breakdown

Out of 14 Maine hospitals evaluated in Leapfrog's latest scorecard, these six received an A: MaineHealth Maine Medical Center in Portland; Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor; MaineHealth Southern Maine Health Care in Biddeford; MaineHealth Pen Bay Medical Center in Rockport; St. Joseph Hospital in Bangor; and St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Lewiston.

Next up with B grades were: MaineHealth Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick; Northern Light Maine Coast Hospital in Ellsworth; Northern Light Mercy Hospital in Portland; and Cary Medical Center in Caribou.

Bringing up the rear were five hospitals with C grades. They include: Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta; Northern Light A.R. Gould Hospital in Presque Isle; and York Hospital at the southern trip of Maine.

For the first time this year, Leapfrog analyzed hospital performance by health system, defined as a network of facilities owned or managed under a single parent organization. Among the hospitals that received an A grade, 94% are part of a health system. In addition, 95% of straight-A hospitals earning top marks two years in a row were found to belong to health systems