Stanislaus County hospital got a ‘D’ for patient safety in new report. See why
Only one Stanislaus County hospital received a ‘D’ grade in a new report evaluating patient safety at medical care centers across the nation.
The Leapfrog Group issues Hospital Safety Grade reports twice a year for nearly 3,000 general hospitals in the United States.
Grades are based on several critical factors, including rates of preventable errors, accidents, injuries and infections, as well as the systems hospitals have in place to prevent them.
The nonprofit organization’s latest report, released May 1 and searchable as an online database, grades health care facilities across the nation on a scale of A to F — with A being the highest grade and F the lowest.
Out of the four Stanislaus County hospitals ranked by Leapfrog, only one received an “D” grade for spring 2025.
Here’s which one:
Which Stanislaus County hospital got a D grade for safety?
Doctors Medical Center of Modesto, 1441 Florida Ave. in Modesto, received the lowest grade of any Stanislaus County hospital evaluated in The Leapfrog Group’s latest report.
According to new data from The Leapfrog Group, the hospital received poor scores for infections, surgical complication, patient safety issues and error-preventative practices, as well as poor performance by doctors, nurses and other staff members.
“Errors are much more common if hospital leaders don’t make patient safety a priority,” The Leapfrog Group said. “Leaders must make sure that all hospital staff knows what they need to work on and that they are held accountable for improvements.”
Some of the safety issues Leapfrog noted included staph bacteria in bed linens, accidental cuts and tears and complications following a surgery.
According to The Leapfrog Group, Doctors Medical Center “declined to report” their efforts to improve safety in certain categories, such as having effective leadership to prevent errors.
However, the Modesto hospital said it is “constantly working to improve patient safety and quality care but these false ratings undermine the doctor-hospital-patient relationship that is essential to positive health outcomes.”
“We stand with our sister hospitals, which have filed a complaint in Florida against The Leapfrog Group’s inaccurate, corrupt and dangerous rankings,” Doctors Medical Center said in a statement responding to The Leapfrog Group’s spring 2025 report. “Leapfrog’s scoring system deceives patients and rewards hospitals that either pay them or supply free data for their flawed survey, while punishing those that do not participate with inaccurate scores based on fabricated data.”
What were patient safety scores for other local hospitals?
These were The Leapfrog Group’s safety grades for other hospitals in Stanislaus County for spring 2025:
A grade
Kaiser Foundation Hospital, 4601 Dale Road, Modesto
B grade
Memorial Medical Center, 1700 Coffee Road, Modesto
C grade
Emanuel Medical Center, 825 Delbon Ave., Turlock
How did The Leapfrog Group come up with its findings?
The Leapfrog Group assigns hospitals a grade from A to F based on their “overall performance in keeping patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors.”
These grades are calculated using up to 30 national performance measures sourced from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, The Leapfrog Hospital Survey and other data.
Under the guidance of a panel of patient safety experts, The Leapfrog Group selected about two dozen evidence-based measures, grouped into five key categories, to create its scoring methodology.
Those categories are:
- Infections
- Problems with surgery
- Safety problems
- Practices to prevent errors
- Doctors, nurses and hospital staff
This story was originally published June 6, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
