How safe are Michigan's hospitals? 5 shine, 3 fail in national grades

How safe are the hospitals near you? In its twice-a-year safety grade report of U.S. hospitals released Nov. 13, Leapfrog Group says 63% of the 79 Michigan hospitals evaluated received an A or B. Only seven facilities received a D or F grade. Five hospitals received a "straight A," meaning they've received an A grade for at least the last five evaluations. The straight A hospitals are Corewell Health Zeeland, Garden City, Henry Ford Health West Bloomfield, Munson Health Cadillac and Trinity Health Livingston in Howell. Ratings in Michigan Seventeen hospitals in Michigan received an A grade, while 33 got a B, 22 were graded a C, 4 got a D and 3 received an F. Two additional hospitals — Sparrow Carson Hospital in Carson City and Three Rivers Health Hospital — were not graded. Ratings in metro Detroit In metro Detroit, seven hospitals received an A rating for safety, while 12 received a B, nine got a C and three were given an F. The hospital grades were: A: Garden City Hospital, Henry Ford Health West Bloomfield Hospital, Trinity Health Livingston Hospital (Howell), Chelsea Hospital, Corewell Health Trenton Hospital, Henry Ford Hospital (Detroit), Henry Ford Providence Novi Hospital B: Corewell Health Beaumont Grosse Pointe Hospital, Corewell Health Beaumont Troy Hospital, Corewell Health Farmington Hills Hospital, Corewell Health Wayne Hospital, DMC Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital (Commerce Township), Henry Ford Health Wyandotte Hospital, Henry Ford Macomb Hospital, Henry Ford Providence Southfield Hospital, Henry Ford Rochester Hospital, Trinity Health Ann Arbor Hospital (Ypsilanti), Trinity Health Livonia, University of Michigan Health - Michigan Medicine (Ann Arbor) C: Corewell Health Dearborn Hospital, Corewell Health Taylor Hospital, Corewell Health William Beaumont University Hospital, Henry Ford Madison Heights Hospital, Henry Ford St. John Hospital (Detroit), Henry Ford Warren Hospital, McLaren Macomb (Mount Clemens), McLaren Oakland (Pontiac), Trinity Health Oakland Hospital (Pontiac) F: DMC Detroit Receiving Hospital, DMC Harper University Hospital (Detroit), DMC Sinai-Grace Hospital (Detroit) Leah Binder, CEO of Leapfrog Group, said in a statement to the Free Press on Nov. 13 that the percentage of hospitals in Michigan earning an A fell from nearly 30% to just over 21%, adding: "We hope to see this percentage increase in the coming Safety Grade updates as hospitals in Michigan work to put patient safety first every minute of every day." "It's worth calling attention to the two hospitals in the Detroit area that have earned the 'Straight A' destination, meaning they've earned an A the last five rounds of the Safety Grade or more. Those Straight A hospitals are Garden City Hospital and Henry Ford Health West Bloomfield Hospital. In Detroit proper, Henry Ford Hospital earned an A for the third consecutive time, which is also a very noteworthy achievement and something to celebrate," she said. Regarding the hospitals that earned an F, Binder said: "Leapfrog isn't the only one to give low marks to these hospitals – they all get one star out of five from (The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) and they all get a 0 on Health Locator, a rating powered by Mayo. Less than 1% of all hospitals earning a Safety Grade have an F. These hospitals are owned by Tenet Healthcare, a publicly traded health system that has the resources to immediately improve the safety of people who are entrusting their lives to the hospitals they own. The people of Detroit deserve a lot better." The Detroit Medical Center (DMC) released a statement to the Free Press on Nov. 13 in response to the grades. "The Leapfrog Group's dangerous and misleading safety grades inflict substantial and immeasurable harm on our community hospitals, our patients, and the public. More: U-M Health-Sparrow Ionia to build $28M center, improve health services More: How safe is your hospital? Check Leapfrog Group grades, including for metro Detroit "Leapfrog's business model relies on hospitals participating in its annual survey to drive revenue. Over the past year, Leapfrog has deliberately changed its Hospital Safety Grade scoring methodology to punish hospitals that decline to participate in its survey — without scientific basis or expert report, and instead for commercial reasons. The result is a system built on inaccurate data and pressure tactics that mislead the public and damage hospitals’ reputations. These rankings benefit only Leapfrog, at the expense of patients and the broader healthcare system. "We are unwavering in our commitment to improving patient safety and delivering the highest quality care; however, these false ratings undermine the vital trust between doctors, hospitals, and patients that is essential to achieving positive health outcomes. We stand with our sister hospitals, which earlier this year filed a complaint in Florida challenging The Leapfrog Group's dangerous and misleading rankings under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act." Focus on hospital safety Leapfrog is one of several sources for patients to check safety scores of their local hospitals. U.S. News & World Report reports ratings and other information on hospitals and doctors. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services offers searchable databases with detailed quality scores for hospitals. Other consumer sites such as Healthgrades and Yelp collect feedback from patients. Leapfrog reports a letter grade on nearly 3,000 U.S. hospitals based on 22 measures of data from Medicare and Medicaid, adverse events information and Leapfrog's survey of hospitals. Leapfrog said its methodology was developed by patient safety experts at Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute and reviewed by a national panel of experts. The organization reports information on every hospital it assesses at www.hospitalsafetygrade.org. Patient safety websites have proliferated after the Institute of Medicine's influential 1999 report called "To Err is Human" found medical errors caused up to 98,000 deaths per year. In 2022, government oversight investigators reported 1 in 4 older Americans on Medicare had some type of temporary or lasting harm during hospital stays. Hospital safety has generally improved in recent years with the increased focus on patient safety, said Dr. Michael Ramsay, chief executive officer of the Patient Safety Movement Foundation, a nonprofit based in Irvine, California. Medicare reduces payments for hospitals that perform poorly on measures such as hospital-acquired infections or patients being readmitted to a hospital within 30 days for the same condition. Ramsay said a Medicare proposal to analyze hospital data within weeks after patients are discharged for surgeries or other procedures will drive timely improvements. Hospitals and doctors will no longer be able to argue that regulators are using out-of-date data. "Once you get real numbers in real time, people change," Ramsay said. "They change dramatically because there's no avoiding it." Why some F-grade hospitals are pushing back In all, 18 hospitals that were part of a chain received an F grade, including five hospitals owned by Tenet Healthcare. Those hospitals included the three Detroit hospitals, as well as Saint Francis Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, and Delray Medical Center in Delray Beach, Florida. Delray Medical Center is one of five Tenet-owned Florida hospitals that filed a federal court lawsuit in April claiming Leapfrog's hospital grades are a "brazen pay-to-play scheme" that "distorts the truth, misleads patients and inflicts serious harm" on hospitals. The other plaintiffs include Good Samaritan Medical Center, Palm Beach Gardens Community Hospital, St. Mary's Medical Center and West Boca Medical Center. In a legal filing in September, Leapfrog denied the hospitals' claims and described the lawsuit as attempt to silence "Leapfrog’s free speech in connection with a public issue." The Florida hospitals have asked a U.S. District Court judge in the Southern District of Florida to issue a judgment in favor of the hospitals and order Leapfrog to remove the hospitals grades from its website and other material. In a statement, the hospitals told USA TODAY that Leapfrog's "dangerous and misleading safety grades inflict substantial and immeasurable harm on our community hospitals, our patients and the public." Binder denied the Florida hospitals claim that they must participate in Leapfrog's survey to get a good grade. "Leapfrog does not operate a pay-for-play structure," Binder said. "The Leapfrog hospital survey is free for hospitals to complete, and all of Leapfrog’s ratings and data are free for the public to access."