Which 4 Montana Hospitals Received ‘C’ Safety Grades?

It may be counterintuitive to think about, but accidents happen at hospitals.

For example, patients are wheeled out of a hospital or healthcare facility before being discharged, or you've maybe been transported between tests, like getting an X-RAY and a CT scan, in a wheelchair. This is to protect a patient from a slip and fall. But patient safety can include other things.

The nonprofit group Leapfrog identifies "errors, injuries, accidents, and infections" as four potential areas that determine patient safety. They score hospitals across the country on how safe they are. Leapfrog has just released its fall report for 2023.

How Safe Are Montana Hospitals?

10 Montana hospitals have just received the most recent safety grades and four hospitals received a grade of 'C.'

Scores were calculated in five different categories:

• Infections
• Problems with Surgery
• Safety Problems
• Practices to Prevent Errors
• Doctors, Nurses & Hospital Staff

Each of these categories had subcategories and full scores are available for each hospital on the Leapfrog website.

Hospitals in Montana that earned a grade of 'A' were:

• Billings Clinic, Billings
• Intermountain Health St. Vincent Regional Hospital, Billings
• Providence St. Patrick Hospital, Missoula
• RCHP Billings-Missoula LLC DBA Community Medical Center, Missoula

Billings Clinic earned an 'A' grade in the spring of 2023 and the fall of 2022, but had a 'B' grade in 2021 and 2020.

Intermountain Health St. Vincent Regional Hospital has consistently had an 'A' grade since 2020.

Providence St. Patrick Hospital had a grade of 'B' in the spring of 2023 but had a grade of 'A' in 2022, 2021, and 2020.

RCHP Billings-Missoula LLC DBA Community Medical Center has had grades of 'A', 'B', 'C', and 'D' since 2020, with the most frequent grade being 'B' in the fall of 2022, spring of 2021, and fall of 2020.

Hospitals in Montana that earned a grade of 'B' were:

• Bozeman Health Deaconess Regional Medical Center, Bozeman
• Intermountain Health St. James Hospital, Butte

Bozeman Health Deaconess Regional Medical Center has consistently had grades of 'C' until this most recent report. In the spring of 2020, they had a score of 'D.'

Intermountain Health St. James Hospital has earned grades of 'C', 'B', and 'A'. The 'B' grade for the fall of 2023 is an improvement as in the spring of 2023 they had a 'C'.

According to the scoring, hospitals in Montana that earned a grade of 'C' were:

• Benefis Hospitals, Great Falls
• Logan Health Medical Center, Kalispell
• Northern Montana Hospital, Havre
• St. Peter's Health Regional Medical Center, Helena

Recent past grades show that Benefis Hospitals has consistently earned a 'C' grade since the spring of 2020.

Logan Health Medical Center had a 'D' grade in the spring of 2021 but improved to 'C' in the fall of 2021 and has been at 'C' ever since.

Northern Montana Hospital's 'C' grade is actually lower than previous grades. In 2022 and 2021 the facility consistently earned 'B' grades.

St Peter's Health Regional Medical Center earned a 'B' grade in the fall of 2021, but otherwise, has had a 'C' grade since the spring of 2020.