Salt Lake City, UT -- (ReleaseWire) -- 11/12/2019 --Nine Intermountain Healthcare hospitals in Utah have received an 'A' grade in a new national safety report.

The Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit organization dedicated to hospital quality and safety, assigns hospital safety grades of 'A', 'B', 'C', 'D', or 'F', to over 2,600 general acute-care hospitals across the nation each spring and fall. No Intermountain facility that received an evaluation was graded below a 'B'.

The grades are based on performance data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Leapfrog Hospital Survey, and other supplemental sources, which represent a hospital's overall performance in avoiding preventable harm and medical errors. Not all hospitals receive grades due to specific volume criteria or specialty hospital status.

The number of Intermountain hospitals that received 'A' grades increased from five in the spring to nine this fall, an 80% improvement. Six hospitals increased their grades, five of which progressed to 'A's.This rate of 'A' rankings is 46% higher than the national average.

Of the 11 Intermountain Healthcare facilities receiving a grade, more than 80% earned 'A's. This includes: Alta View Hospital, American Fork Hospital, Cedar City Hospital, LDS Hospital, McKay-Dee Hospital, Dixie Regional Medical Center, Logan Regional Hospital, Riverton Hospital, Utah Valley Hospital, and Park City Hospital. Intermountain Medical Center received a 'B' grade.

In the spring of 2019, The Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality updated its estimate of deaths due to errors, accidents, injuries and infections at 'A', 'B', 'C', 'D' and 'F' hospitals. The analysis calculated that over 50 thousand lives could be saved if all 'D' and 'F' grade hospitals performed at the level of 'A' grade hospitals.

About Intermountain Healthcare
Intermountain Healthcare is a not-for-profit system of 24 hospitals, 215 clinics, a Medical Group with 2,500 employed physicians and advanced practice clinicians, a health insurance company called SelectHealth, and other health services in Idaho, Utah, and Nevada. Intermountain is widely recognized as a leader in transforming healthcare by using evidence-based best practices to consistently deliver high-quality outcomes and sustainable costs.