A new Healthgrades report recognizes 438 U.S. hospitals for top-tier patient safety-ranking them in the national top 10% based on 13 clinical indicators.
Texas, Florida, California, Ohio, and Pennsylvania lead the nation in total award recipients, with counts ranging from 21 to 62 facilities. The concentration may reflect these states’ large hospital networks, but it also signals strong safety performance in major metro areas like Los Angeles, Dallas-Fort Worth, and New York City.
Patients at these hospitals faced dramatically lower risks: 71.9% less likely to develop pressure sores, 67.8% fewer catheter-related bloodstream infections, and over 50% reduced odds of procedural complications like collapsed lungs or in-hospital falls causing fractures.
Healthgrades estimates that if all U.S. hospitals matched this standard between 2022 and 2024, more than 100,000 preventable safety events could have been avoided.
To qualify, hospitals had to report zero cases of severe errors-such as leaving foreign objects inside patients-and meet strict benchmarks using Medicare inpatient data.
Notably, 10 states-including Alabama, Alaska, Iowa, Vermont, and Washington-had no hospitals on the list, underscoring geographic disparities in access to high-safety care, potentially worsened by rural hospital closures and care deserts.
Nearly one-third of this year’s honorees are new to the list, reflecting ongoing improvements nationwide.