Safety data from hundreds of U.S. hospitals shows progress across several measures, and patient experience is improving, too, according to The Leapfrog Group.
On May 6, the patient safety organization published its biannual hospital ratings, which grade hospitals from “A” to “F” based on 22 patient safety measures from CMS and Leapfrog’s voluntary survey.
Leapfrog, which has assigned letter grades to U.S. hospitals since 2012, highlighted the following patient safety improvements in its spring 2026 ratings:
- Central line-associated bloodstream infections fell 50% since fall 2022.
- Catheter-associated urinary tract infections decreased 45% since fall 2022.
- Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus cases declined 42% since fall 2022.
- Clostridium difficile cases decreased 30% since fall 2022.
- In 2025, 90% of hospitals met Leapfrog’s standard in computerized physician order entry, which can reduce common prescribing errors. In 2018, this figure was 66%.
- In 2025, 93% of hospitals reported using bar code medication administration systems, an increase from 47% in 2018.
Five CMS patient experience measures used by Leapfrog — nurse communication, physician communication, staff responsiveness, communication about medicine and discharge information — have improved by an average of one point since fall 2023.
In total, Leapfrog said its spring 2026 safety grades found 17 improved measures in medical errors and infections.
Five Florida hospitals recently filed a lawsuit against Leapfrog, accusing the organization for assigning lower safety grades due to nonparticipation in its survey. A federal judge ruled in the hospitals’ favor March 6.
The organization said it is pursuing an appeal to the judge’s ruling, which ordered Leapfrog to pull the grades for the five Florida hospitals. In the spring 2026 ratings, Leapfrog did not grade about 450 hospitals that did not participate in its survey.
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