Milford Regional, Leonard Morse, Heywood rated region's safest hospitals

Photo/Google Leonard Morse Hospital in Natick received an A rating from the Leapfrog Group in the nonprofit's twice-annual review. The hospital also received an A in the spring 2018 scoring.

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By Grant Welker

Milford Regional Medical Center, Leonard Morse Hospital in Natick and Heywood Hospital in Gardner have been rated the safest hospitals in Central Massachusetts.

The new twice-a-year ratings released Thursday by the Leapfrog Group, a Washington, D.C. nonprofit tracking hospital safety, are the latest to score hospitals nationwide based on reported safety issues, problems with surgeries, communication with hospital staff and practices in place to prevent errors.

The reviews score each hospital on areas such as how often patients receive blood infections or if dangerous objects are left in a patient during surgery. Other factors include how well staff communicate about patients and whether effective leadership is in place to prevent errors. A Leapfrog Group panel of doctors studies 28 measures of publicly available hospital safety data, analyzed the data and determines its scores.

Of 10 Central Massachusetts hospitals ranked, three received A's, four received B's and three received C's. Across Massachusetts, 59 hospitals were rated: 26 received A's, 21 got B's, and 12 scored C's.

How Central Massachusetts hospitals fared:

Heywood Hospital, Gardner: A. This is the second straight A rating for Heywood, and fourth in the past eight.

Leonard Morse Hospital, Natick: A. The hospital also received an A in the spring 2018 scoring. It received mostly B scores in the few prior years, and two A scores in 2015.

Milford Regional Medical Center: A. The hospital jumped from a C score in the spring. Before then, it received A's in five of the previous six cycles.

Harrington Memorial Hospital, Southbridge: B. The hospital was not rated in the spring of 2018 but before that received six straight A's.

MetroWest Medical Center, Framingham: B. The hospital has received C scores in the four previous ratings.

Saint Vincent Hospital, Worcester: B. This is a drop for Saint Vincent, which had scored seven straight A ratings.

UMass Memorial Medical Center - Memorial Campus, Worcester: B. The hospital also received a B this spring, but received a C in five of the previous six cycles.

Marlborough Hospital: C. The hospital wasn't included in the spring 2018 ratings, but received A's in four of the previous six cycles.

UMass Memorial HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital, Leominster: C. The hospital has now received four straight C scores, and six of its last eight scores. UMass Memorial HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital's Clinton campus was not rated.

UMass Memorial Medical Center - University Campus, Worcester: C. With the exception of a B this spring, the University Campus has scored a C in seven of the last eight ratings.

UMass Memorial HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital's Clinton campus was not rated. UMass said Marlborough Hospital did not submit a completed survey, and that its C grade was based only on data Leapfrog obtained from external data sources.