More Illinois hospitals get A grades for safety; a dozen get D’s

An increasing number of Illinois hospitals are scoring A grades for safety, according to a new report, though a dozen hospitals in the state earned D grades for their efforts.

In Illinois, 32 hospitals have notched A grades, up from 24 hospitals in the spring, according to the Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit founded by large employers and other organizations that buy health insurance. Illinois now ranks 23rd in the nation for patient safety — up from 30th in the spring .

Illinois hospitals that earned top marks this fall include University of Chicago Medical Center; Rush University Medical Center; six Endeavor Health hospitals in Evanston, Highland Park, Glenview, Elmhurst, Naperville and Arlington Heights; and seven Northwestern Medicine hospitals in Huntley, DeKalb, Chicago, Winfield, Geneva, Lake Forest and McHenry.

University of Chicago Medical Center, Endeavor Health Elmhurst Hospital and Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital have earned straight A's since 2012.

"It's about patient safety ... did you leave the hospital with something you didn't come in with — preventable infections, falls, outcomes you picked up in hospital," said Dr. Tom Spiegel, vice president and health system chief quality officer at UChicago Medicine. "That's where we excel, at preventing those, and that's why we continue to maintain those ... straight A's."

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Nurses look over patient information on computers at Endeavor Health Elmhurst Hospital, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. Elmhurst Hospital has received straight A's from Leapfrog Group for safety. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)

All but one of Endeavor's hospitals, Endeavor Health Swedish Hospital in Chicago, received A grades from Leapfrog this fall. Endeavor, formerly known as NorthShore University HealthSystem, has grown in recent years, adding hospitals in Naperville, Elmhurst, Chicago and Arlington Heights. That growth has given Endeavor a chance to look at practices across all of its hospitals and share the best ones across the system, said Dr. Lakshmi Halasyamani, Endeavor's chief clinical officer.

"The data never lies," Halasyamani said. "So you have to look at your outcomes and say, 'Is there a way to do this better?'"

One hospital in Illinois got an F: HSHS St. Mary's Hospital in Decatur. Attempts to reach HSHS for comment were unsuccessful.

Across the state, 12 hospitals earned D grades, including five in the Chicago area: West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park and Chicago hospitals Weiss Memorial Hospital, Roseland Community Hospital, South Shore Hospital and Community First Medical Center.

A representative for South Shore declined to comment on the hospital's grade, and attempts to reach West Suburban, Weiss and Community First for comment were unsuccessful.

Roseland CEO Tim Egan noted in an email that another ratings group, the Lown Institute, has awarded Roseland higher grades than Leapfrog. The Lown Institute has a different methodology than Leapfrog, focusing on equity, value and outcomes, and, most recently, it gave Roseland a B grade.

Several other Chicago-area hospitals dramatically improved their grades since the spring, including Jackson Park Hospital in Chicago, Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville and Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington, which all earned A grades, up from C grades in the spring.

Nine Advocate Health Care hospitals improved their grades this fall, compared with the spring.

The Leapfrog Group grades hospitals across the country twice each year, basing the grades on 22 safety measures, including hand hygiene, falls and trauma, and death rates among surgical patients with serious but treatable complications. Leapfrog gathers its data from the federal government and a survey it sends to hospitals.

Doctors and health care leaders urge consumers to use grades and ratings as just one piece of information when selecting care. They should also take into consideration which doctors and facilities are in-network with their health insurance plans and recommendations from their trusted physicians.

Leapfrog is one of a number of organizations that rate hospitals each year, often with differing methodologies and results.

"Patient safety is so important and there are many other measurements of why you should go from one hospital to another," said Cheryl Larson, president and CEO of the Midwest Business Group on Health, which helps facilitate the Leapfrog hospital survey in Illinois. "This is one of them, and it's an important one."

Hospitals that earn high marks from ratings groups often tout them in their advertising, hoping to gain an edge as they compete against other Chicago-area hospitals for patients and dollars.

Halasyamani said she'd love to see hospitals across the Chicago area collaborate to boost every facility's safety.

"At some level we're competing on safety when we really should be collaborating on safety," she said. "Wouldn't it be amazing if across the Chicagoland area every hospital was an A? ... For these communities, it (would) mean they all have access to care that is as safe as possible."

In this latest round of Leapfrog grading, Utah ranked No. 1 in the country, with the highest percentage of hospitals earning A grades. No hospitals got A grades in Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Vermont.