Hospitals given “D” and “F” grades from The Leapfrog Group are rebuking the patient safety scores, arguing that Leapfrog’s grading was unfair.
Piedmont Medical Center in Rock Hill, S.C., Huntsville (Ala.) Hospital and Madison (Ala.) Hospital said the scores are not accurate representations of their safety and quality performance. The hospitals did not report data to Leapfrog’s biannual safety grade survey — a factor they say contributed to the misleading scores.
The Alabama hospitals, which are operated by Huntsville Hospital Health System and received “F” grades, said in a statement shared with CBS affiliate WHNT that the organization “chose to publish a rating with incomplete information.”
Leah Binder, president and CEO of Leapfrog, told Becker’s that, of the approximately 2,500 general acute hospitals it evaluates, about 20% did not report to Leapfrog’s spring 2025 survey. Of those hospitals, more than 400 received a grade of “C” or higher.
“It is perfectly possible to get a good grade and not report to the Leapfrog survey we use,” Ms. Binder said. “We use the Leapfrog survey when we have that data. We impute scores for the data when we don’t have it. I think the measures that the hospitals are concerned about are four out of the 30 measures we use in the hospital safety grade. So if these hospitals did well on more of those 30 measures, there would be no issue whatsoever. They’d be getting an “A,” “B” or “C,” but they are actually performing, in some cases, very poorly on some measures that come from CMS, so that’s an area where we would strongly encourage them to focus their attention.”
Huntsville Hospital and Madison Hospital said they will employ “significant resources that are required to complete a survey of Leapfrog’s scope” in the future.
“While we would rather have these staff members taking care of patients, and we recognize that Leapfrog may not be the best indicator of hospital quality, allowing an organization to suggest we do not prioritize patient safety is an affront to dedicated care givers and first responders working around the clock to make Huntsville a better place to live,” the hospitals said.
Piedmont Medical Center, which received a “D” score, voiced a similar complaint.
In a statement shared with The Herald, Piedmont claimed that “Leapfrog’s scoring system deceives patients and rewards hospitals that either pay them or supply free data for their flawed survey, while punishing those that do not participate with inaccurate scores based on fabricated data.”
Ms. Binder said this claim is “factually incorrect,” adding there is no “pay-to-play” for hospitals to participate in the survey or receive a grade. The organization also does not charge the public to access hospital safety data, she said.
“It’s human nature to want to shoot the messenger when you get a bad grade, so I understand that if a hospital gets a ‘D’ or an ‘F,’ they immediately turn to Leapfrog and accuse us of misjudgment, I guess, but some of the statements that they’ve made are factually incorrect,” she said.
In April, five hospitals part of Palm Beach (Fla.) Health Network filed a lawsuit against Leapfrog, alleging the rankings are based on flawed methodology and damage hospitals’ reputations. The hospitals — two of which received a “D” and one an “F” — said Leapfrog penalizes organizations that do not submit data by doling out low ratings.
Ms. Binder described the lawsuit as an attempt to suppress critical safety information.
“When we look at these hospitals’ results from CMS, we see preventable suffering and death far exceeding the national average, and even the national average is too high,” she said in a statement.
Two similar cases filed against Leapfrog, one in 2017 and another in 2019, were dismissed by courts.
