No Tampa Bay region hospitals received a failing grade for patient safety but several were given C ratings in rankings released Thursday by the independent nonprofit Leapfrog.
Tampa General Hospital, the region’s only Level I trauma center, earned its seventh straight C grade.
Four Tampa Bay area HCA hospitals also received C ratings: HCA Florida South Shore in Sun City Center, HCA Florida Northside in St. Petersburg, HCA Florida Largo and HCA Florida Bayonet Point in Hudson. Tampa General’s regional hospitals in Brooksville and Spring Hill were also rated C.
Eleven of 12 BayCare hospitals that were rated received A grades, including its flagship Tampa hospital St. Joseph’s and St. Anthony’s Hospital in St. Petersburg. South Florida Baptist Hospital in Plant City, which had overall blood and urinary tract infections above the national average, received a B.
“This achievement demonstrates what’s possible when every team member, physician and advanced practice provider takes ownership of safety and is a testament to our shared focus on zero harm,” said Dr. Laura Arline, BayCare’s chief quality officer, in a news release.
Five Tampa Bay region AdventHealth hospitals were rated A, including ones in Dade City, Carrollwood and Wesley Chapel. AdventHealth Tampa bounced back from its C grade in the spring to earn a B. Its rate of sepsis infections after surgery was below the national average.
“When patients walk through our doors, they can trust that our teams are focused on preventing errors, maintaining the highest safety standards and delivering compassionate care that helps them heal and feel whole,” said Raj Wadhawan, chief clinical officer of the AdventHealth West Florida Division in an email.
Overall Florida ranked 15th in the nation with 38% of its hospitals earning an A grade. The state ranked 10th in the fall of 2022.
Leapfrog, an independent nonprofit, releases safety grades twice on year on more than 3,000 hospitals across the U.S. The grades are determined by tracking preventable medical errors, infections and injuries.
It began ranking hospitals a decade ago in an effort to reduce deaths from hospital errors and injuries by publicly recognizing safety and exposing harm. The rankings are based on more than 30 performance measures, including data hospitals report to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, billing information and patient satisfaction surveys. Its ranking is based on four years of data.
Tampa General’s scorecard shows that rates of sepsis, blood leakage, kidney injuries after surgeries and patient falls were above the national average.
The hospital in 2022 announced it was making efforts to raise its grade.
That included a task force to focus on lowering hospital infections, the use of technology to identify patients at higher risk of infections and an increased focus on prevention among medical staffers. It also did a full redesign of its critical care division.
Leapfrog’s four-year grading formula means those improvements will take time to be reflected in grades that currently are still influenced by performance during the pandemic when many hospitals were inundated with patients during surges in COVID-19 infections.
Tampa General officials have also repeatedly said they see more value in ratings produced by Vizient, which compares it to hospitals of similar size and complexity, including NYU Langone, Mass General Brigham and Vanderbilt University.
Tampa General has been a top ranked hospital in U.S. News & World Report’s 2025-2026 Best Hospitalsfor 10 straight years and is ranked in the nation’s top 50 hospitals for six medical specialties, including urology, ear, nose and throat, and cardiology, heart and vascular surgery.
“With the benefit of real-time data, we don’t need to rely on outdated rankings systems to inform us of the quality of care at Tampa General,” said spokesperson Amanda Bevis in an email. “At some point in the future, Leapfrog’s evaluations will catch up and verify what we already know. Tampa General is one of the nation’s leading academic health systems, and multiple, trusted sources, including Vizient, U.S. News and World Report, Newsweek and DNV, confirm just that.”