Survey: HSHS St. Mary's 1 of 4 IL hospitals to get 'F' grade

DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) - HSHS St. Mary's Hospital in Decatur is one of four Illinois hospitals to receive an 'F' grade, according to the new Fall Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades.

The Decatur facility was not the only HSHS facility to receive a poor grade, as HSHS St. John's Hospital in Springfield earned a 'D.'

Leapfrog's grades, formerly called Hospital Safety Scores, use a series of "22 evidence-based measures of patient safety," according to Leapfrog. Some of the measures come from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The system used by Leapfrog has been approved by the Journal of Patient Safety, according to the group.

The organization releases grades twice per year for nearly 3,000 general acute-care hospitals. It also works with a panel of experts from the health industry including doctors from Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and Stanford.

The 'F' grade for HSHS St. Mary's is the third straight dating back to the fall of 2024. Its previous three grades were a 'D.'

The 'D' grade for HSHS St. John's is its third straight after several 'C' grades.

In a statement to WAND News, HSHS said it is committed to providing quality patient care and continues to evaluate internal quality improvement initiatives.

According to Leapfrog's website, HSHS did not respond (or participate) to the group's survey.

Part of the HSHS statement reads:

"There are a variety of health care quality rating organizations (e.g. Leapfrog, HealthGrades, US News) that review and publish hospital quality scores. No two organizations rely on the same criteria for their ratings, which may include publicly reported data, such as data from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) and state databases; their own proprietary quality measures, or a mixture of both.
HSHS supports the collection and publication of hospital quality data to help consumers make informed decisions about their health care. Since each rating organization relies on different metrics to create a quality ranking, grade or score for each hospital, it can be difficult to discern which ranking is most accurate."

Decatur Memorial Hospital earned one of the highest grades in the area with a 'B.' It's also one of the highest grades DMH has received in recent years after a string of 'C' grades, and one 'D.'

Other hospital grades are as follows:

Springfield Memorial Hospital - C
OSF Sacred Heart Medical Center - C
HSHS St. Anthony's Memorial Hospital - C
Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center - C
Carle Foundation Hospital - D

WAND also reached out to Carle, DMH and OSF, but has not heard back at this time.

The Leapfrog Group works towards improving transparency in healthcare facilities nationwide. The full list of hospital grades is available on Leapfrog's website.

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