Nearly Two-Thirds of Connecticut Hospitals Earn Top Grades

Nearly two-thirds of Connecticut hospitals earned a grade of A or B in an annual report grading hospitals across the nation, including Connecticut, based on an array of safety factors.

Compiled by the Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit which monitors and reports hospital safety data, grades are assigned for hospital safety based on a number of categories, including the number of infections and the types of practices in place to prevent errors.

The Leapfrog Group looks at the data available from each hospital, and determines how they've performed on a graded scale that ranges from A to F. Of the 29 Connecticut hospitals listed in the report, eight received an A, nine received a B, 10 received a C and 2 received a D. 

Connecticut hospitals earning an A grade in the overall ratings include Charlotte Hungerford Hospital in Torrington, Day Kimball Hospital in Putnam, Hartford Hospital, Middlesex Hospital in Middletown, St. Francis Hospital & Medical Center in Hartford, The Hospital of Central Connecticut in New Britain, The William Backus Hospital in Norwich, and the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington.

On the other end of the spectrum, the two Connecticut hospitals that received grades of D were Bridgeport Hospital and Bridgeport Hospital Milford Campus.

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is a public service provided by The Leapfrog Group, an independent nonprofit organization committed to driving quality, safety, and transparency in the U.S. health system. This year’s report is the 20th annual.

Among the evaluation categories measured are: preventing and responding to patient harm, medication safety, healthcare-associated infections, maternity care, pediatric care, critical care, complex adult and pediatric surgery, care for elective outpatient surgery patients and elective outpatient surgery for adults and children.  Added to the categories making up the overall ratings this year were billing ethics and monitoring health care inequities. 

In addition to their 2021 report, the organization also released a national list of top hospitals, which names Hartford Hospital as one of the nation’s top teaching hospitals, the only Connecticut hospital included among the national ranking categories.