Illinois continues to climb in a national ranking for hospital safety, though four hospitals earned F grades — the most in years, according to the nonprofit Leapfrog Group.
Illinois now ranks 17th in the country — up from 23rd a year ago and 30th before that — for its percentage of hospitals earning A grades for safety, according to Leapfrog, which releases hospital safety grades twice a year.
Illinois moved up in the rankings because its percentage of A-graded hospitals increased slightly, while other states have seen their percentages drop, said Alexandra Campione, program manager of the safety grade for the Leapfrog Group.
In all, 35 Illinois hospitals earned A grades; 21 earned B’s; 34 got C’s; and 14 received D grades.
The four Illinois hospitals that got F’s include Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago; West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park; Roseland Community Hospital in Chicago; and HSHS St. Mary’s Hospital in Decatur.
Weiss closed in August, after the federal government said it would be terminated from the Medicare program because it was out of compliance with rules related to nursing services, physical environment and emergency services. The owner of Weiss is appealing that determination, and has said he hopes to reopen the hospital.
Weiss and West Suburban got F grades partly because the hospitals did not respond to the Leapfrog survey, said Dr. Manoj Prasad, whose company Resilience Healthcare operates Weiss and West Suburban.
Leapfrog bases its grades on 22 safety measures, including hand hygiene, falls and trauma, and death rates among surgical patients with serious but treatable complications. The organization gets its data from the federal government, a survey it sends to hospitals and other data sources.
“We don’t participate,” Prasad said of the survey. “It is quite resource-intense. It requires a lot of people to pull data. There’s just not enough resources to go around.”
Campione acknowledged that a hospital’s grades might be lower if it doesn’t fill out the survey, but she said the survey is only one small part of determining a hospital’s grade. It’s still possible for a hospital to get an A, even without filling out the survey, she said.
Roseland President and CEO Tim Egan said in a statement that Roseland “protests the F grade from Leapfrog.” Egan said that the hospital has won other recognitions for its performance “yet the fallible Leapfrog grading system will cast a shadow on the great progress being made at our financially struggling Safety Net Hospital.”
An HSHS spokesperson said in a statement that the system is “committed to providing quality patient care.”
“There are a variety of health care quality rating organizations that publish hospital quality scores, each relying on different data and metrics, often leading to confusion,” the HSHS spokesperson said in the statement. “We encourage patients and families to discuss care options with their physicians and care teams to make informed decisions.”
The Chicago-area hospitals that earned D’s include Mount Sinai Hospital, Insight Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago, and Vista Medical Center in Waukegan.
Sinai Chicago said in a statement that it is committed to quality and patient safety. The statement noted that the grades reflect data from 2024, when Mount Sinai implemented a new electronic health record system and underwent other changes that temporarily affected reporting.
“We continue to prioritize quality and safety and have seen positive results in hospital acquired infections and conditions, as well as both Nurse and Doctor Communication,” Sinai Chicago said in the statement.
Attempts to reach Insight and Vista for comment were unsuccessful.
Patient Helen Micari, left, receives medication and attention from registered nurse Jess Isho at Endeavor Health Evanston Hospital on April 25, 2025. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)
Meanwhile, Chicago’s highest rated hospitals continued their winning streaks. Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Rush University Medical Center and University of Chicago Medical Center all earned A’s. Six Endeavor Health hospitals — in Highland Park, Evanston, Glenview, Elmhurst, Naperville and Arlington Heights — also earned A’s. Seven Northwestern hospitals also received A’s.
University of Chicago Medical Center is one of just 11 hospitals nationwide that have earned straight A’s since 2012, according to Leapfrog.
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“We really never stop focusing on those patient safety indicators,” said Samantha Ruokis, vice president of clinical performance excellence for UChicago Medicine. “Even when we’re performing well and haven’t had an incident in some time, the team continues to focus on (proactive risk mitigation and safety measures).”
That means fostering a culture where workers aren’t afraid to speak up if they see a problem, such as reminding a colleague to sanitize their hands when walking into a patient room if the person forgets, she said. It also means consistently sticking with best practices, such as preventing blood clots after surgeries through medications, by encouraging patients to walk when appropriate and using special electronic boots that squeeze a patient’s calves to keep blood flowing.
“Most organizations have best practices in place,” Ruokis said. “Where it gets challenging is making sure that’s the habit and it sticks.”
Rush University Medical Center also works to keep patients safe in a variety of ways, such as by trying to prevent hospital acquired infections by carefully maintaining devices such as central lines and urinary catheters and by avoiding using those devices in patients who don’t need them, said Dr. Brian Stein, chief quality officer for the Rush University System for Health.
Medical staff talk at a nurses station in the cardiovascular intensive care unit at Rush University Medical Center on Nov. 12, 2025. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)
Rush University Medical Center is among 17 Illinois hospitals that have scored straight A’s for at least five consecutive grading periods.
Scoring consistently high over time, as well as across different hospital ratings systems, is more important than one single letter grade, Stein said.
Leapfrog is one of a number of organizations that rate hospitals each year. Low-scoring hospitals tend to criticize the ratings systems, while high-scoring hospitals often tout their grades and rankings in advertisements in hopes of gaining a competitive edge. Leapfrog was founded by large employers and other organizations that buy health insurance.
Each ratings organization uses its own methodology, sometimes leading to differing results. Health care leaders say consumers should use ratings as one piece of information when deciding where to get care, along with considerations such as their doctors’ recommendations, personal experiences and which hospitals are in-network with their health insurers.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/12/leapfrog-hospital-safety-ranking-illinois/
