Utah is among states with the highest percentage of "A"-rated hospitals in a twice-a-year safety assessment.
Spring Hospital Safety Grades are from The Leapfrog Group, an independent national nonprofit organization driving a movement for improvement in patient safety. The letter-grade system is based on general hospitals' ability to protect patients from medical errors, accidents, injuries and infections.
Utah has the fourth-highest percentage of "A" hospitals, behind only Connecticut, Virginia and South Carolina and ahead of Montana, New Jersey, Florida, Maryland, North Carolina and California. Four states have no "A" hospitals: North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming.
Eight Utah hospitals received "straight-A" grades for maintaining an "A" mark for five or more consecutive Leapfrog reporting cycles. They include Intermountain Health's Cedar City Hospital, LDS Hospital (Salt Lake City), McKay-Dee Hospital (Ogden), Park City Hospital, Spanish Fork Hospital, St. George Regional Hospital and Utah Valley Hospital (Provo), as well as Lakeview Hospital (Bountiful).
Utah hospitals with "A" grades are Holy Cross Hospital – Davis (Layton); Holy Cross Hospital Salt Lake; Intermountain Health's American Fork Hospital, Intermountain Medical Center (Murray) and Riverton Hospital; and Mountain View Hospital (Payson).
Ten Utah hospitals received a "B" grade: Ashley Regional Medical Center (Vernal); Common Spirit – Holy Cross Hospital – Jordan Valley (West Jordan); Holy Cross Hospital – Mountain Point (Lehi); Holy Cross Hospital – West Valley; Intermountain Health's Alta View Hospital (Sandy), Layton Hospital and Logan Regional Hospital; Lone Peak Hospital (Draper); Ogden Regional Medical Center and St. Mark's Hospital (Salt Lake City).
Two received "C" grades: Castleview Hospital (Price) and Timpanogos Regional Hospital (Orem).
Utah hospitals not graded are Bear River Valley Hospital (Tremonton), Brigham City Community Hospital, Cache Valley Hospital (North Logan), Mountain West Medical Center (Tooele), Orem Community Hospital, Primary Children's Hospital – Salt Lake City and Sevier Valley Hospital (Richfield).
For this spring, due to a ruling by a federal court in South Florida, Leapfrog did not assign spring grades to 450 hospitals that did not participate in the 2024 or 2025 Leapfrog surveys. "Although the court ruling only applied to five hospitals, Leapfrog does not apply programmatic changes to individual hospitals because the Hospital Safety Grade is a national program," the organization said, adding that it is reviewing the safety grade methodology with an expert panel to ensure that the grade program continues to be useful for consumers.
That group of 450 hospitals includes Uintah Basin Medical Center (Roosevelt) and University of Utah Hospital (Salt Lake City) in Utah.
The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade was launched in 2012 and focuses on hospitals based on their record of patient safety, helping consumers protect themselves and their families from errors, injuries, accidents and infections. Hospitals receive a letter grade from "A" through "F" based on up to 22 national safety measures drawn from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data, the National Healthcare Safety Network and the Leapfrog Hospital Survey. The program's methodology is peer-reviewed. Details are at www.hospitalsafetygrade.org.
Nationally, Leapfrog said, the springtime data shows significant improvement in 17 measures of errors and infections. This includes healthcare-associated infections, barcode medication administration, computerized physician order entry and five patient experience measures.
"The good news is that hospitals across the country are making meaningful strides in patient safety and helping save countless lives," said Leah Binder, The Leapfrog Group's president and CEO. "But not all hospitals are the same. That's why it's so important for people to consult safety grades and do their research when choosing a hospital."
Medication errors are the most common type of error in hospitals, although the latest data suggest improvements in how hospitals prevent them. Healthcare-associated infections reached their peak in the fall of 2022 but average HAI scores have declined dramatically for four measures; central line-associated bloodstream infections (down 50 percent) catheter-associated urinary tract infections (down 45 percent), methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (down 42 percent) and clostridium difficile (down 30 percent).
Similarly, patient experience scores were at their all-time lowest performance in fall 2023 but since then have all improved. Leapfrog reports on five patient experience measures that directly impact safety outcomes: nurse communication, doctor communication, staff responsiveness, communication about medicine, and discharge information.
