BALTIMORE, MD — Only one Maryland hospital earned an A in hospital safety and one of its 44 hospitals received an F, according to new grades released by The Leapfrog Group this week. The nonprofit organization issues its hospital safety grades twice a year, in the spring and in the fall.

Medical errors, accidents, injuries and infections are taken into account by Leapfrog when calculating the grades. The goal of the rankings is to determine a patient's risk of further injury or infection if they visit a certain hospital.

"Errors and infections in hospitals are the third leading cause of death in America, and people deserve to know which of their hospitals are best at preventing them," Leah Binder, president and CEO of Leapfrog, said in a press release. "What we've learned is that transparency has a real impact on patient safety."

There were only 15 hospitals nationwide that were given an F grade, and Maryland is home to one of them. At Baltimore's allegedly failing hospital — Bon Secours — the data showed that MRSA infections as well as blood infections and urinary tract infections during ICU stays were higher than expected. In addition, the number of surgical wounds that split open after major stomach or abdominal surgeries was denoted as high.

Bon Secours disputed the grade, telling USA Today "it does not accurately reflect our quality" or the hospital's function in the community as a link to jobs and housing. The only hospital in Maryland in the rankings to receive an A grade was Howard County General in Columbia.

Howard County General Hospital Receives A For Patient Safety This year marks the first time that Maryland was included in the rankings, which have been released since 2012; previously, Leapfrog said it was unable to obtain data at a national level because of a federal waiver that exempted Maryland from reporting key safety metrics.



"We commend the Maryland Health Care Commission for their leadership, which was instrumental in getting Leapfrog the data needed to issue these grades," Binder said. "As a Maryland resident myself, I appreciate this level of transparency."