Hospitals across the country show staggering variation when it comes to patient safety, according to Hospital Safety Score, and now the company has compiled data to find not only which states are the safest for patients, but pinpointed which hospitals in each state give the best patient care.
“When we talk about patient safety, we’re really talking about how hospitals and other health care organizations protect their patients from errors, injuries, accidents, and infections,” the report reads.
As many as 440,000 people die each year from hospital errors that could have been preventable, according to the company. The rankings were found by comparing the percentage of A-graded hospitals to the total number of hospitals operating in the state.
This year Illinois came in 15th, with 43 percent of hospitals receiving A's. It is a drop from last year's No. 6 ranking. Vermont took the No. 1 spot with 83 percent of state hospitals being Grade A, followed by Maine, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Minnesota to round out the five safest states for hospital across the country.
The worst states for medical care were found to be Wyoming, District of Columbia and Alaska – all of which had absolutely no hospitals available with a Grade A rating.
In the annual study, 115 Illinois hospitals were graded on a total of 28 different safety measures, and 50 received overall A grades, Crain’s Chicago Business reported.
No Illinois hospitals got a flunking F rating, but five received D scores, making them the lowest ranking hospitals in the state.
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A handful of Illinois hospitals garnered straight-A rankings, or received A's on every measure they were graded upon, according to Crain’s.
Safest Hospitals in Illinois:
- Advocate Condell Medical Center, Libertyville
- Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital, Downers Grove
- Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, Chicago
- Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, Park Ridge
- AMITA Health St. Alexius Medical Center, Hoffman Estates
- Elmhurst Memorial Hospital, Elmhurst
- HSHS St. John's Hospital, Springfield
- HSHS St. Joseph's Hospital, Breese
- Morris Hospital, Morris
- Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital, Winfield
- OSF St. Joseph Medical Center, Bloomington
- OSF St. Mary Medical Center, Galesburg
- Rush University Medical Center, Chicago
- Rush-Copley Medical Center, Aurora
- Swedish Covenant Hospital, Chicago
- University of Chicago Medical Center, Chicago
- West Suburban Medical Center, Oak Park
Illinois hospitals that were given 'D' grades, ranking lowest in state:
- Franciscan St. James Health, Chicago Heights
- Franciscan St. James health, Olympia Fields
- Holy Cross Hospital, Chicago
- Norwegian American Hospital, Chicago
- Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago
- Passavant Area Hospital, Jacksonville
To read the entire study and detailed scores of each individual hospital, see them here.