Kaiser Permanente, Providence, and Sutter Health Given Top Marks by National Watchdog Group for Patient Safety

Kaiser Permanente and Sutter Health hospitals in the North Bay account for six of eight medical centers to score top marks in patient safety, according to a new report.

The Leapfrog Group, a national watchdog organization, has released its spring 2025 Hospital Safety Grades report, an evidence-based assessment of hospitals’ ability to protect patients from medical errors, accidents, injuries and infections. The Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit also produces its hospital safety report every fall.

Kaiser Permanente’s medical centers in Santa Rosa and San Rafael were awarded “Straight A” grades, a new category Leapfrog introduced this spring for hospitals scoring an “A” for two years or more.

Four North Bay hospitals retained their “A” grade since fall. They are Adventist Health Ukiah Valley, and three Sutter Health facilities: Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital, Novato Community Hospital and Sutter Solano Medical Center, according to Leapfrog.

Two regional hospitals — Kaiser Permanente Vacaville Medical Center and Providence Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa — moved up from “B” to “A.”

“All hospitals should be proud to earn an ‘A,’ but they should not rest on that laurel,” Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, said in in the May 1 press release. “Patient safety is a relentless, never-ending quest to put patients first.”

Four North Bay medical centers saw their grades unchanged from last fall.

Kaiser Permanente Vallejo Medical Center and Providence Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital retained a “B” grade, while Petaluma Valley Hospital and Sonoma Valley Hospital stayed at “C,” according to Leapfrog.

On the other end of the spectrum, Leapfrog downgraded four North Bay facilities.

MarinHealth Medical Center, NorthBay Medical Center in Fairfield and NorthBay VacaValley Hospital in Vacaville were lowered from “A” to “B.” Adventist Health St. Helena was downgraded from “B” to “C.”

None of the North Bay’s medical centers were graded “D” or “F,” according to Leapfrog, which has produced its hospital safety reports since 2012. The organization was founded in 2000 by a group of business leaders.

Leapfrog uses more than 20 safety measures — including data from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services — to grade nearly 3,000 hospitals across the country. Leapfrog does not assign grades to critical access hospitals, specialty hospitals, children’s hospitals and outpatient surgery centers because of “inadequate data.”

Leapfrog also ranked the states with the highest number of hospitals receiving an “A” grade. California placed 9th, with 42.8% of its medical facilities receiving an “A” grade.

Utah was the top state with the highest percentage of “A” grades for spring, followed by Rhode Island, New Jersey, Connecticut, South Carolina and Virginia, according to the report.

Leapfrog is not the only organization that measures hospital safety performance, although nonprofit Cal Hospital Compares cites Leapfrog’s ratings as part of its scoring system.

CMS every year releases its Overall Hospital Quality Ratings, scoring hospitals between one and five stars. Denver-based Healthgrades annually evaluates U.S. hospitals on mortality rates and in-hospital complications, taking into consideration patient risk factors such as age, gender and medical condition.