Patient safety is on the upswing, with new data from The Leapfrog Group showing improvements in key patient safety measures.
As part of its spring 2026 Safety Grades, the organization -- known for assigning participating hospitals letter-grade ratings based on performance on patient safety metrics -- said there's been marked improvement nationwide since years prior..
However, according to Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, there's still variation in how individual hospitals perform.
"The good news is that hospitals across the country are making meaningful strides in patient safety and helping save countless lives," Binder said in a press release. "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."
The Leapfrog Group reported improvement in patient safety metrics across healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), medication safety and patient experience.
For example, in 2022, the organization reported all-time low safety scores for HAIs, indicating that these infections were occurring frequently. In this latest batch of patient safety reporting, The Leapfrog Group documented significant improvement across the following four measures:
- 50% decrease in central line-associated bloodstream infections.
- 45% decrease in catheter-associated urinary tract infections.
- 42% decrease in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.
- 30% decrease in Clostridium difficile.
Additionally, The Leapfrog Group reported greater adoption of health IT designed to improve medication safety. This is critical, the organization said, as medication errors are among the most common types of errors in hospitals.
In 2018, only 66% of hospitals had met Leapfrog's standard for using computerized physician order entry, which can reduce harm from prescribing errors by more than half. But by 2025, the year on which the 2026 rankings are based, 90% had adopted CPOE.
Similarly, Leapfrog said that only 47% of hospitals had met its standard for adopting bar code medication administration in 2018. By 2025, 93% had.
Finally, in terms of patient experience, The Leapfrog Group noted key improvements across nurse communication, doctor communication, staff responsiveness, communication about medicine and discharge information. Each of these patient experience domains saw an average of one percentage point improvement since an all-time low performance in 2023, Leapfrog said.
Leapfrog addresses court decision on safety grades
In addition to outlining trends in the spring 2026 Safety Grades, Leapfrog acknowledged changes in response to a South Florida federal court ruling earlier this year.
The ruling stated that Leapfrog must remove safety grades for five hospitals that did not voluntarily participate in the organization's 2024 and 2025 surveys, which the court said was a deceptive and unfair practice.
For the spring 2026 Safety Grades, Leapfrog said it opted to remove grades for all hospitals that did not participate in the 2024 and 2025 surveys, not just the five involved in the South Florida case. More than 400 hospitals are reported as Grade Not Assigned.
"Leapfrog is pursuing an appeal and reviewing the Safety Grade methodology with its National Expert Panel to ensure the Hospital Safety Grade continues to be useful for consumers," the organization said.
In addition to the 450 hospitals receiving a GNA rating, Leapfrog also outlined grades for hospitals that participated in its 2024 and 2025 surveys.
Connecticut, Virginia, South Carolina, Utah, Montana, New Jersey, Florida, Maryland, North Carolina and California had the highest percentage of A-rated hospitals for this reporting period.
There were no A-rated hospitals in North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming.
Sara Heath has reported news related to patient engagement and health equity since 2015.
