A brief look at updated hospital safety grades in Georgia

There’s lots of ways that patients can compare hospital performance. 

One is a bi-annual survey from the Leapfrog Group. The health care watchdog nonprofit uses responses from a voluntary survey and other data collected by federal agencies to grade hospitals on safety.

Leapfrog’s grades are basically based on a hospital’s reported ability to keep patients safe from injury or medical harm, such as infections. 

“We have several methods in place and processes in place to verify the accuracy of responses, starting with an attestation from the hospital CEO,” said Katie Stewart, director of hospital ratings at Leapfrog. “We also do random monthly requests for documentation.”

Included in the survey portion of the scoring methodology include physicians on staff in the ICU, hand hygiene and infections aquired after treatment. External data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides information about staff communication, patient discharge, death rate, falls, trauma and other reported injuries occurring at the facility. 

In Georgia ,70 hospitals were surveyed for the fall 2024 report, and overall, the state dropped by 10 points in the rankings since the last survey report in the spring. 

All that means is that patients should take extra care when choosing where to go, Stewart said. 

“If you're in an area where you don't have an 'A' hospital, take a look at the facilities nearby,” Stewart said. “You can look by measure, see what they're doing well and have conversations. But ultimately we want to see better performance.”

Of the 13 facilities that got straight A’s this year, Piedmont hospitals came out on top in Macon, Athens, Augusta and Columbus among others. Wellstar Paulding, Colquitt Regional in Moultrie and Fairview Park in Dublin also got straight A’s. 

No Georgia hospitals received F grades, but five got D’s, including Stephens County Hospital and Atrium Health Navicent Medical Center in Macon. 

Consumers can search through the full list of Hospital Safety Grades by state online. Hospitals inelleigible for safety grades include Critical Access Hospitals, specialty hospitals like cancer treatment centers, government-run facilities and those with a lack of publicly available data.