The safety of Pennsylvania's hospitals has shown improvement over the course of 2017, making big strides in an updated report that earlier ranked the state in the nation's lower half.
When The Leapfrog Group published its spring 2017 Hospital Safety Grades in April, Pennsylvania as a whole was slotted as the 34th safest state in the country. Hospitals in Philadelphia and the surrounding area are what kept Pennsylvania from falling lower. Six received an "A" grade, four received a "B" grade and five received "C" grades at the time.
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The assessments are based on 30 performance measures that incorporate everything from medical errors and accidents to staffing levels and infection control. If every hospital in the United States received an "A" grade, according to Leapfrog, 33,000 lives would be saved on an annual basis.
"Errors and infections in hospitals are the third leading cause of death in America, and people deserve to know which of their hospitals are best at preventing them," said Leah Binder, president and CEO of Leapfrog.
In a matter of just six months, Pennsylvania hospitals seem to have gotten the message loud and clear. Leapfrog's updated rankings placed Pennsylvania at number 25, with 30.16 percent of its hospitals receiving an "A" grade.
The upshot is that Philly's number of "A" hospitals dropped to five. Here's where the city's hospitals currently stand on safety.
A: Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital — Methodist Hospital Campus, Jeanes Hospital.
B: Aria Health — Frankford Division, Aria Health — Torresdale Division, Hahnemann University Hospital, Mercy Philadelphia Hospital, Roxborough Memorial Hospital.
C: Einstein Medical Center, Pennsylvania Hospital, Temple University Hospital.
D: Mercy Health System — Nazareth Division.
Several hospitals across in the greater Philadelphia area also received "A" grades.
Montgomery County: Abington Health Lansdale Hospital, Bryn Mawr Hospital
Bucks County: Doylestown Hospital, Grand View Health, St. Luke's Quakertown Hospital
Chester County: Paoli Hospital, Penn Medicine Chester County Hospital
You can get a detailed look at all of Leapfrog's fall 2017 rankings here.