Southwest Florida hospitals are preventing medical errors and taking other measures to keep patients safe, according to the latest safety ratings.
The nonprofit Leapfrog Group, which has been analyzing hospitals for safety since 2012, has released its spring grades for roughly 3,000 hospitals nationwide. The grades are done twice a year.
The states with the highest percentage of “A” hospitals are Connecticut, Virginia, South Carolina, Utah, Montana, New Jersey, Florida, Maryland, North Carolina and California.
In Florida, 183 hospitals were graded; another eight were not graded.
Southwest Florida hospitals performed well, according to the findings.
Three Lee Health system hospitals in Lee County received “A” grades.
They are Lee Memorial, Cape Coral Hospital, and HealthPark Medical Center. Gulf Coast Medical Center, the fourth general acute care hospital run by the nonprofit Lee Health, earned a “B” grade.
Also HCA Florida Lehigh Hospital in the county received a “B’ grade.
In neighboring Collier County, the two hospitals run by the nonprofit Naples Comprehensive Health earned “B” grades. They are NCH North Hospital and NCH Baker Hospital.
The two hospitals operated by for-profit Physicians Regional Healthcare System received different grades. Physicians Regional at Pine Ridge received a “C” while Physicians Regional at Collier Boulevard earned a “B.”
What about elsewhere in Florida?
Florida’s hospitals improved their performance significantly, according to Leapfrog.
Florida moved to seventh among states for its number of “A” hospitals after being fifteenth in fall 2025.
Of the 181 hospitals graded in Florida, 80 received “A’s and 60 brought home “B” grades and 41 received “C” grades. Two hospitals received “D’s.
Eight were not graded, and that is tied to a federal court ruling in March.
Leapfrog is not assigning grades to 450 hospitals across the U.S. that did not participate in its 2024 or 2025 survey. As a result, those hospitals are reported as “grade not assigned.”
Tenet Healthcare sued Leapfrog in 2025 over poor grades given to its Palm Beach network of five hospitals, calling the grading system unfair and deceptive.
Tenet alleged Leapfrog pressured hospitals to participate in its surveys and pay membership fees or face poor safety grades. Tenet said its Palm Beach hospitals decided to stop participating in Leapfrog’s surveys and allegedly received worse grades afterward.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida ruled this spring in favor of Tenet. The court said Leapfrog’s methodology violated Florida’s unfair and deceptive business practices law and unfairly penalizes non-participating hospitals.
The court required Leapfrog to cease assigning safety grades to Tenet’s Palm Beach hospitals and remove grades assigned to the five hospitals in 2024 and 2025. Leapfrog was required to issue corrective disclosures, along with other actions.
For the 2026 spring grades, Leapfrog said that while the court ruling only applied to five hospitals, Leapfrog “does not apply programmatic changes to individual hospitals because the hospital safety grade is a national program.”
As a result, Leapfrog did not grade 450 hospitals nationwide that did not participate in the 2024 or 2025 survey
Leapfrog is pursuing an appeal and reviewing its methodology.
How did SWFL hospitals react to the grades?
Lee Health officials point out that for 17 consecutive years every Lee Health hospital has earned a “B” or higher.
Cape Coral, HealthPark and Lee Memorial received “A’s” for at least five consecutive years.
“At Lee Health, our focus is always on delivering safe, exceptional care to the Southwest Florida community,” Dr. Iahn Gonsenhauser, chief medical officer, said in a news release.
“I’m grateful to work alongside a team that brings compassion, skill and dedication to every patient, every day,” he said. “Recognition from The Leapfrog Group reflects our staff’s ongoing commitment to patient safety and quality care.”
Gina Teegarden, chief nursing executiveat NCH, said patient safety andquality care “are at the heart of everything we do at Naples Comprehensive Health.”
“As a trusted healthcare provider in Southwest Florida, we remain focused on advancing continuous improvement across patient safety, clinical outcomes, and the overall patient experience for the communities we serve,” she said.
Physicians Regional spokeswoman Brittney Thoman said the hospital system is committed to providing safe and quality care for all patients.
“We are pleased that our grade is better this period, we remain focused on patient safety and look for continued improvement in the fall update,” Thoman said.
“Our quality performance is a continuous journey and it requires sustained engagement by all of our employees and physicians. Our patients’ care and safety is at the forefront in all we do,” she added.
What to know overall about hospitals nationwide
Leapfrog uses 32 measures to generate grades that examine key issues such as medical errors, infections and other patient harms.
There has been significant improvement on 17 measures of errors and infections, according to Leapfrog.
“The good news is that hospitals across the country are making meaningful strides in patient safety and helping save countless lives,” Leah Binder, president and chief executive officer of Leapfrog Group, said. “But not all hospitals are the same. That’s why it’s so important for people to consult safety grades and do their research when choosing a hospital.”
Five of the measures specifically address patient experience that impact outcomes.
Patient experience scores were at an all-time low in fall 2023 and have improved, according to Leapfrog.
This article originally appeared on Marco Eagle: Safety grades: How did Lee Health, NCH and Physicians Regional do?
Reporting by Liz Freeman, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida / Marco Eagle
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
