Maryland’s hospital safety rankings up, but still not stellar

Safety missteps at hospitals can lead to serious medical mistakes. This includes things like surgical errors, treatment errors, care errors or medication errors. Such medical errors, in turn, could expose patients to injuries, infections, illnesses or other health complications.

So, how good of a job hospitals here in Maryland do when it comes to safety has big implications for patients in the state.

Recently, state rankings on hospital safety came out. In these rankings, the states and Washington D.C. were compared on how well the hospitals in them did in Leapfrog’s hospital safety ratings for Fall 2018. Specifically, they were ranked on what percent of their hospitals got an “A” grade in these ratings.

In the rankings, Maryland was found to hold the No. 38 in the nation for hospital safety, with 20 percent of its hospitals getting an A grade.

This was a significant improvement from how the state’s hospitals faired in the rankings from a half a year ago. In the Spring 2018 rankings, Maryland was in the bottom five for hospital safety. Specifically, it was ranked 47th, with only 7.32 percent of its hospitals receiving an A.

It is worth noting though that, while Maryland did see a noticeable jump in its hospital safety ranking in the most recent report, the state’s hospitals still have considerable room for improvement. After all, while it is no longer in the bottom five in the state hospital safety rankings, Maryland is still in the bottom 15. What do you think it will take to move the state further up the ranks? What do you think are currently the most pressing safety issues when it comes to Maryland hospitals?