Report: Central Mass. Home To 3 Of State's Least Safe Hospitals

A campus of UMass Memorial Medical Center, given a "C" grade by the Leapfrog Group

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Three of the least safe Bay State hospitals are located in Central Massachusetts, according to a report compiled Wednesday by a nonprofit.

The Leapfrog Group awarded a “C” grade – the lowest given in the commonwealth – to two Worcester campuses of UMass Memorial Medical Center, as well as HealthAlliance Hospital in Leominster. The only other “C” was given to a hospital in North Adams.

The report measured both outcomes – such as patient falls and trauma and post-surgery complications – and process measures – such as staffing levels and proper antibiotic disbursement. Some scores were based on a survey that not all hospitals responded to.

UMass Memorial scored poorly on measures such as nurse staffing levels and death among surgical inpatients with serious treatable complications, while HealthAlliance struggled with the use of electronic prescriptions for medications.

“The Leapfrog “C” grade given to UMass Memorial Medical Center represents the fact that we did not participate in Leapfrog’s current data collection,” said hospital spokesman Rob Brogna. “Their grade is not a reflection of our quality of patient care.”

Brogna said UMass Memorial is currently participating in the data collection, which should help boost the hospital’s rating in future reports.

HealthAlliance Hospital also said their rating was negatively influenced by not participating in Leapfrog’s survey, and cited other data points – such as Consumer Reports ranking the hospital the safest in Massachusetts in 2012 and 2013 – to argue they deliver exceptional care.

“Some watchdog agencies (such as the Leapfrog Group) do a good job in selected areas, but they don’t answer to anyone on their accuracy or the quality of their reports,” said spokeswoman Veronica Rosa.

Meanwhile, six hospitals in the region were among the 76 percent statewide that received “A” grades. They are Harrington Hospital in Southbridge, Leonard Morse Hospital in Natick, Marlborough Hospital, MetroWest Medical Center in Framingham, Milford Regional Medical Center and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Natick.

Only Maine performed better in safety ratings than Massachusetts, Leapfrog found.

Heywood Hospital in Gardner and Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester each received a “B” grade.

Updated at 2:55 p.m. with comments from HealthAlliance Hospital