One Illinois hospital earns an F for safety, while another climbs from an F to an A in new ratings

A South Side hospital has earned an F for safety, while another has clawed its way from an F to an A, according to new ratings from the nonprofit Leapfrog Group.

Roseland Community Hospital was the only hospital in Illinois to earn an F this spring. Meanwhile, St. Bernard Hospital and Health Care Center in Englewood earned an A for safety, after getting an F just two years ago.

Statewide, about 26% of hospitals earned A’s, making Illinois 28th in the country for its percentage of hospitals with top scores — the same ranking as the last time grades were released in the fall. The Chicago area’s most prestigious hospitals also saw their grades hold steady from the fall, with Rush University Medical Center and UChicago Medicine again notching A’s, Northwestern Memorial Hospital earning a B and Loyola University Medical Center getting a C.

Leapfrog releases the grades twice each year, with ratings based on more than 30 measures of patient safety from the federal government, a Leapfrog survey and other sources. Measures include falls and trauma, hand hygiene and death rates among surgical patients with serious, treatable conditions.

With each release of grades comes debate about the importance and accuracy of hospital ratings. A number of organizations release hospital ratings each year with often differing results. Hospitals that earn top marks often advertise their grades and ratings to try to attract more patients and dollars, while those that do poorly question the methodology behind the grades and argue that they don’t paint a full picture of a hospital’s quality.

Roseland President and CEO Tim Egan said in a statement about the hospital’s new F grade, “We are terribly disappointed by Leapfrog’s assessment, but we also know that Leapfrog does not calculate social determinants of health, nor does it evaluate the challenged community we serve.”

Roseland has already put in place a number of patient safety programs and created a committee that’s tasked, in part, with earning an A grade from Leapfrog. Roseland is also in negotiations with the state to implement a transformation plan that would include quality improvement initiatives, Egan said.

Egan also pointed to a separate recent rating by the Lown Institute, which ranked Roseland as the No. 2 hospital in Chicago for its “fair share spending” — the amount it spent on charity care and in its community compared with what it likely saved through tax exemptions.

“Leapfrog, led by business interests seemingly focused on lowering insurance costs, gave Roseland an F,” Egan said. “These alternate ratings agencies showcase what was proved at the heights of COVID: We are all in the same storm but not in the same boat.”

Leapfrog was founded by large employers and others who purchase health insurance, with an aim of “empowering purchasers to find the highest-value care and giving consumers the lifesaving information they need to make informed decisions,” according to Leapfrog.

Other hospitals, however, are celebrating the new grades. Three Illinois hospitals — UChicago Medicine, Elmhurst Hospital and Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield — have earned A’s 23 consecutive times. They’re among only 20 hospitals nationwide to earn so many straight A’s.

“It’s something that we keep as a priority,” said Elmhurst Hospital President Dr. Kimberley Darey, of safety. “It’s something that we have ingrained in our culture.”

Employees at Elmhurst are encouraged to speak up if they see something unsafe, said Sherri Leahy, vice president of quality and safety for the south region of NorthShore-Edward-Elmhurst Health. Elmhurst also has an advisory council made up of people who’ve been patients at the hospital, she said.

St. Bernard Hospital is also now celebrating its latest Leapfrog grade — literally. Hospital leaders plan to hand out cupcakes to workers Wednesday and show a video highlighting the hospital’s accomplishments, following the A grade.

It’s been a harrowing journey for St. Bernard, which got an F for safety just two years ago. After that F, the hospital hired Michael Richardson as chief quality and patient safety officer. He and others improved the hospital’s system for making sure medication was administered correctly, installed technology to remind staff to sanitize their hands when entering and exiting patient rooms and reshaped its culture for dealing with mistakes.

St. Bernard’s grades climbed, from an F to a C, then a B and now an A.

“St. Bernard has put a lot of work into getting where we are now,” Richardson said. “It shows the community that we’re really committed to safety. … We want to show the community that St. Bernard has definitely changed.”

Nationally, New Jersey had the highest percentage of hospitals earning A grades. Zero hospitals received A grades in Delaware, the District of Columbia or North Dakota.

Leapfrog also found that, nationally, the average risk of three health-care associated infections — Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), central line-associated bloodstream infections and catheter-associated urinary tract infections — rose to a five-year high in hospitals during the pandemic.