California in the middle of the pack in hospital safety ratings

On Behalf of | Nov 21, 2018 | Medical Malpractice |

Earlier this month, Leapfrog released its Fall 2018 hospital ratings. In these ratings, the organization gave hospitals throughout the nation letter grades for hospital safety.

How did California hospitals do in these ratings? The ratings point to California, as a whole, being towards the middle of the nation in hospital safety.

In the Fall 2018 ratings, 256 California hospitals were graded. Of these hospitals:

  • 83 got an A
  • 58 got a B
  • 93 got a C
  • 20 got a D
  • 2 got an F

So, 32.42 percent of California hospitals received an A grade.

This is right about where the national average is. Nationally, around 32 percent of hospitals got an A.

Compared to the rest of the states, California falls around the middle when it comes to how common A-graded hospital are. The state ranked 23rd highest in the country when it comes to the percentage of its hospitals that were A-graded. The state that took the No. 1 spot, New Jersey, had 56.72 percent of its hospitals get an A grade.

California did see a slight increase in the percentage of hospitals with an A grade as compared to Leapfrog’s Spring 2018 ratings. In those rankings, 29.10 percent of the state’s hospitals received an A grade, which put the state in the No. 25 spot in the nation.

As the ratings illustrate, safety levels at hospitals vary quite a bit, both from state to state and within a state. So, when picking a hospital for important procedures here in California, individuals may want to do some research on how the hospitals they are considering have done in ratings and reviews related to safety.

How much attention a hospital gives to patient safety can impact many things, including a patient’s likelihood of suffering medical errors. Medical malpractice lawsuits can be an important compensation route for victims of such errors.

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