St. Clair Health Leads The State With Its 18th Consecutive ‘A’ Hospital Safety Grade From The Leapfrog Group

‘Expert Care From People Who Care’ Is Foundation of Rating

The Leapfrog Group, the nation’s leading patient safety watchdog, has released its new Hospital Safety Grades for Spring 2021, awarding St. Clair Health an “A” for its demonstrated record of preventing patient harm.

St. Clair is one of only 39 hospitals across the country to have earned 18 “As” in a row and the only hospital in Pennsylvania to have done so, placing St. Clair amongst the top 1.5 percent of hospitals in the country and the leader in the region for patient safety.

Developed under the guidance of a national Expert Panel, the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses up to 27 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign grades to more than 2,700 acute care hospitals twice a year. The Safety Grade assigns letter grades of A, B, C, D and F to hospitals nationwide based on their performance in preventing medical errors, injuries, accidents, infections and other harms.

“An ‘A’ safety grade is an elite designation that your community should be proud of,” said Leah Binder, President and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “The past year has been extraordinarily difficult for hospitals, but St. Clair Health shows us it is possible to keep a laser focus on patients and their safety, no matter what it takes.”

Diane L. Puccetti, R.N., BSN, MS, Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer at St. Clair, said,  “Our mission to put patients first is built into the culture at St. Clair and prioritizes patient safety by providing an environment of care that protects patients from harm.”

Today’s announcement continues a tradition of excellence that is unsurpassed in western Pennsylvania. In addition to The Leapfrog Group, St. Clair this week also was named among the 100 Top Hospitals for the fourth consecutive year. It is the sixth time since 2012 that St. Clair has received this honor, and the seventh overall, the most in western Pennsylvania.

In recent years, St. Clair has received numerous accolades from not only The Leapfrog Group, 100 Top Hospitals, but also from The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek, CareChex, Healthgrades, and others. St. Clair remains western Pennsylvania’s exclusive member of the Mayo Clinic Care Network.