St. Mary's Health Care System has received an "A" grade for patient safety in the most recent nationwide assessment of hospital safety conducted by The Leapfrog Group, a national patient safety watchdog.

St. Mary's was the only hospital in Northeast Georgia and one of only 17 hospitals in the entire state to earn an "A" grade. Nationwide, 798 hospitals received an "A". Hospital Safety Scores assign A, B, C, D and F letter grades to hospitals nationwide and provide the most complete picture of patient safety in the U.S. health care system, according to Leapfrog.

"Patient safety is our top priority," said St. Mary's President and CEO Don McKenna. "We continually update our practices and procedures, train our staff, and work with our medical staff to ensure that we keep patient safety at the forefront of everything we do. There is no finish line. No matter how good our processes and training are, we always strive to get better."

“Avoidable deaths in hospitals should be the number one concern of our health care leaders. Hospitals that earn an ‘A’ from Leapfrog are leaders in saving lives, and we commend them and urge their continued vigilance,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group.

The last year has been unprecedented for recognition of quality at St. Mary's, McKenna noted. St. Mary's was named Georgia's Large Hospital of the Year in October 2015 by the Georgia Alliance of Community Hospitals, and in February was named one of America's 100 Best Hospitals 2016 by Healthgrades.

"These accomplishments are due to the long-term and on-going commitment of our staff and medical staff to the health and safety of our patients," McKenna said. "It takes all of us, working together, to achieve such high levels of quality and to maintain them."

Developed under the guidance of Leapfrog’s Blue Ribbon Expert Panel, the Hospital Safety Score uses 30 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign A, B, C, D and F grades to more than 2,500 U.S. hospitals twice per year. It is calculated by top patient safety experts, peer-reviewed, fully transparent and free to the public.