Hospital Safety Grades: Why "D" Hospitals Are Just as Important to Know About as "A" Hospitals
May 7th 2025
On May 1, The Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit representing hundreds of the nation’s most influential employers and purchasers of health care, announced its Spring 2025 Hospital Safety Grades. The independent grading system assigns an A, B, C, D, or F grade to general hospitals across the country based on more than thirty national measures of preventable errors, injuries, accidents, and infections.
New Hampshire has a total of 26 hospitals. Of the 26, thirteen hospitals are general hospitals and thirteen are critical access hospitals. Critical access hospitals are not scored. A general hospital provides comprehensive patient services for a variety of medical conditions. A critical access hospital is a rural hospital with 25 or fewer beds that provides limited services.
Of the thirteen general hospitals in New Hampshire were graded, four hospitals earned an A, one hospital earned a B, six hospitals earned a C, and two hospitals earned a D. No New Hampshire hospitals were graded an F.
The hospitals that earned an “A” in New Hampshire include:
Exeter Hospital
Portsmouth Regional Hospital
St. Joseph Hospital
Wentworth-Douglass Hospital
While these hospitals should be applauded for their safety scores, it is equally important for patients to note the lesser grades of their area hospitals, which measured performance on patient safety indicators like preventable medical errors, accidents, injuries, and infections in hospitals. These quality indicators impact the deaths of roughly 200,000 people every year. Medical researchers estimate that patients are twice as likely to die of a preventable problem at a C, D, or F hospital than in an A hospital.
While it is true that the effects of COVID are still impacting the healthcare workforce, contributing to burnout and a smaller pool of professionals, many researchers point to hospital consolidations as a significant cause of hospital safety concerns. Hospitals have historically been “run primarily by doctors and nurses and now are being run by businessmen.” This quote suggests a priority shift in the healthcare industry, prioritizing profits over patient care, which could also be affecting patient safety.
The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is the only hospital ratings program based exclusively on hospital prevention of medical errors and harm to patients. The grading system is peer-reviewed, fully transparent and free to the public. Grades are updated twice annually, in the fall and spring.
- Kim Persson
Blog Post Archive
Hospital Safety Grades: Why "D" Hospitals Are Just as Important to Know as "A" Hospitals
May 7th 2025
The Leapfrog Group announces their Spring 2025 Hospital Safety Grades, Kimberly Persson details the grades across New Hampshire.
Impacts of Labor and Delivery Unit Closures
April 25th 2025
Labor and delivery units are closing all over the United States. Read about what is causing these closures, how they are effecting maternal care, and what can be done about it.
Tariffs, Cuts, and Consequences: Unpacking the Latest Healthcare Policy Shifts
April 17th 2025
Alison Mehlman breaks down how new tariffs could drive up drug prices, disrupt access, and reshape the future of healthcare in the United States, starting with pharmaceuticals.
The Brass Tacks on the Pink Tax
April 10th 2025
Women are consistently charged more for everyday essentials, a phenomenon know as the “pink tax.” This hidden cost of being a woman extends into healthcare, where out-of-pocket expenses can soar simply due to gender. Read Kimberly Persson's analysis on this issue and more, below.
UNH Healthcare Vitals: Medical Debt and the Rise of Rx Drug Costs
April 1st 2025
The cost of prescription medication costs are rising. See how this is effecting New Hampshire residents and what policymakers are doing about it.
Rising Trends in Behavioral Health: Chronic Conditions, and Pregnancy: A Seven Year Analysis
March 13th 2025
The prevalence of certain health conditions in New Hampshire are on the rise, to find out which ones, why, and the implications, read Bethany Swanson's summary here.
Out-of-Pocket Healthcare Costs Are Rising - Pregnancy Tops the List.
March 10th 2025
According to recent medical claims data, Pregnancy with delivery has the highest out-of-pocket costs. Read about other findings and implications here.
Understanding New Hampshire's Most Costly Health Conditions
February 27th 2025
Bethany Swanson explores the financial impact of the most costly conditions in New Hampshire based on a recent analysis of medical claims data from Medicaid, Medicare, and commercial insurers.
Hospital Cost Containment through Tax Legislation?
February 21th 2025
Kimberly Persson details how hospital prices have been dramatically increasing, and how legislation to tax hospitals on excessive prices could be part of the solution.
Strengthening Support for Youth: How New Hampshire is Expanding Awareness and Access to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline
February 18th 2025
In efforts to better market the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, New Hampshire plans use results from a recent survey conducted by IHPP on college and high school student's awareness and perceptions of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. The findings of the survey, future recommendations, and more, are detailed and analyzed by Tess Pueschel and Susy Peoples.
Unaffordable Employer Sponsored Insurance - Could ICHRA Be the Solution Employers Need?
February 14th 2025
Increases in employer-sponsored insurance have left employees unable to afford premiums and out-of-pocket expenses. Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements (ICHRAs) offered by employers are changing the benefits game; Kimberly Persson details how.
What is Old is New Again: Medicaid Work Requirements and Changing the Federal Share of Medicaid Spending
February 10th 2025
Deb Fournier details how Medicaid financing and work requirements are changing, and what that might mean for Americans depending on this program.
Understanding Pharmaceutical Utilization and Costs in New Hampshire: Key Insights from 2022
February 7th 2025
An analysis of New Hampshire pharmacy claims from major insurance payers presents interesting findings, read Bethany Swanson's take on the implications of the complex relationship between drug utilization and costs in NH.
Health Policy for New Hampshire and Country
February 3rd 2025
Read a list of what Deborah Fournier and the rest of the Health Law and Policy Team are reading in the health policy space this February:
Measuring Total Healthcare Expenditures
January 23rd 2025
Healthcare costs are rising, and we don't know how much we spend on healthcare, or what we're spending it on. Read Lucy Hodder's analysis of current healthcare expenditures and what we're doing about it in New Hampshire.
The Disparate Data on Opioid Overdose Deaths: A Call to Close the Gap
January 13th 2025
The United States is seeing a decrease in opioid overdose deaths for the first time since 2018, but not for all demographics. Susy Peoples shows that it is time to develop community-specific response strategies across the United States. Additionally, take a look at an analysis of New Hampshire's response to this epidemic.
US Continues to Receive Bad Marks in Healthcare
December 12th 2024
See an analysis of this year's Mirror, Mirror report from the Commonwealth Fund and continued reports of healthcare facilities struggling with inadequate staffing.
Four New Hampshire Hospitals Earn “A” on the Fall 2024 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade
November 15th 2024
On November 15th, The Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit representing hundreds of the nation’s most influential employers and purchasers of health care, announced the Fall 2024 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades.
How Hospitals Use a Low-Cost Drug Program to Profit on Patient Care
November 2024
Have you ever heard of 340B? No? Well, it’s coming. Policy pundits across the country predict that 340B will be a prime topic of conversation for employers in the coming year because it is costing them a lot of money and contributing to the unsustainable growth in healthcare expenditures.
Continuing the quest for affordable and equitable healthcare
October 17th 2024
On October 17, IHPP held its annual symposium, this year entitled, “Continuing the quest for affordable and equitable healthcare.” Attendees discussed the wicked problem of healthcare costs and affordability in New Hampshire. The day’s dialogue included the current trends in healthcare prices and the affordability crisis in healthcare, affordability as a component of access and equity, primary care’s role in improving costs and outcomes, equity beyond affordability, and available state policy solutions to address cost and affordability, such as cost growth benchmarks with Rachel Block of Milbank Memorial Fund and prohibiting anti-competitive contracting with Maureen Hensley-Quinn at NASHP.
On October 25, the New Hampshire Insurance Department held its annual hearing on its report on NH healthcare premium rates and claims. Public comment is being accepted on the report through November 15, 2024. NHID also held a robust discussion of using a total healthcare expenditure model to learn more about New Hampshire’s drivers of healthcare costs – neatly echoing the cost growth benchmark discussion that was held the week prior at the symposium. Panelists included Rhode Island’s Health Insurance Commissioner, Cory King and President of the Milbank Memorial Funds, Chris Koller.
Meanwhile, the Attorney General’s office held a public hearing about the proposal for HCA to purchase Catholic Medical Center on October 23, 2024. Public comments are being accepted through November 1, 2024.
Last in this post, but certainly not least, Medicare Open Enrollment began on October 15 and Marketplace Open Enrollment begins November 1.
