The Leapfrog Group, a non-profit that aims to improve health care quality and safety for consumers and purchasers, has announced its Spring 2021 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades and has awarded Mid Coast Hospital an A, the highest designation that Leapfrog offers.

To determine its letter grades every six months, Leapfrog uses publicly available data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, as well as its own surveys, to evaluate how well hospitals prevent medical errors, injuries, accidents, infections and other harm to patients in their care. Achieving an A grade is a challenge, as is maintaining one. The Safety Grade assigns letter grades of A, B, C, D and F to hospitals across the country based on their performance in preventing medical errors, infections and other harms.

Developed under the guidance of an expert panel, the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses 27 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign A, B, C, D and F grades to approximately 2,500 U.S. hospitals twice per year. It is peer-reviewed, fully transparent and free to the public.

“To be acknowledged at the highest level of safety is not only an honor, but also highlights our entire staff’s dedication to delivering the highest quality care possible,” said Lois Skillings, president and CEO of Mid Coast–Parkview Health. “Especially after this last year testing us on all fronts, we are extremely grateful for this recognition, and will continue to put our patients’ safety first, in addition to continuously strive for improvement.”

The consistency of this measure is reassuring to the hospital that their hard work and dedication to continuously improving quality and patient care is on par with their mission to provide outstanding healthcare in the community.

“An A safety grade is an elite designation that your community should be proud of,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “The past year has been extraordinarily difficult for hospitals, but Mid Coast Hospital is a great example of the potential an organization has to keep a laser focus on patients and their safety, no matter what it takes.”

To view the full grade details and access patient tips for staying safe in the hospital, please visit hospitalsafetygrade.org.