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Suburban hospitals earn top patient safety rating

A total of 19 suburban hospitals earned an "A" rating in The Leapfrog Group's Spring 2019 Hospital Safety Grades, which focuses on patient care and safety.

The Leapfrog Group is a national, nonprofit organization committed to improving health care quality and safety for consumers and purchasers. Leapfrog uses 28 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign A, B, C, D or F grade twice a year to hospitals across the country based on their performance in preventing medical errors, infections and other harms among patients in their care.

Nationally, the group said an estimated 160,000 lives are lost annually from the avoidable medical errors that are accounted for in the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade - a significant improvement from 2016, when researchers estimated 205,000 avoidable deaths.

When compared to "A" rated hospitals, the group said patients at "B" rated hospitals face a 35% greater risk of avoidable death. That percentage jumps to 88 percent for "C" rated facilities and to 92 percent for "D" rated hospitals, according to Leapfrog.

A total of 110 hospitals in Illinois were evaluated by the organization, according to Leapfrog's website.

Edward Hospital in Naperville and Elmhurst Hospital, part of the Edward-Elmhurst Health system, each earned an A rating, with Elmhurst Hospital being one of only 41 hospitals in the U.S. to achieve an A in every update since Leapfrog began the Hospital Safety Grades in the spring of 2012, according to Edward Elmhurst officials.

Other hospitals that earned "A" ratings include:

• Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights.

• Amita Health Care's Adventist Medical Center LaGrange, Adventist Medical Center Hinsdale, Adventist Medical Center Bolingbrook, Adventist Medical Center Joliet, GlenOaks Medical Center in Glendale Heights, St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates and St. Joseph Medical Center in Elgin.

• Rush University's Rush Copley Medical Center in Aurora and Rush Oak Park Hospital.

• NorthShore University Health System's Highland Park Hospital and Glenbrook Hospital in Glenview.

• Northwestern Medicine's Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, Delnor Hospital in Geneva, McHenry Hospital and Huntley Hospital.

• Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox.

To see the full report and find out how your local hospital fared, go to www.hospitalsafetygrade.org/.

This story was updated on May 20, 2019.

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