{"id":65623,"date":"2026-05-12T20:27:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T00:27:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=65623"},"modified":"2026-05-12T20:27:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T00:27:58","slug":"spring-2026-leapfrog-hospital-safety-grades-have-been-released","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/05\/12\/spring-2026-leapfrog-hospital-safety-grades-have-been-released\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring 2026 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades have been released"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Spring 2026 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades were released on May 6, 2026<\/strong>, showing a strong performance for several facilities in Polk County. Florida as a whole climbed to 7th in the nation for hospital safety this period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Polk County, the “best” rankings are dominated by BayCare and AdventHealth facilities, while other major centers maintained mid-range scores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Best: “A” Rated Hospitals<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Three hospitals in Polk County earned the top safety grade this spring. Winter Haven Hospital<\/strong> and Bartow Regional<\/strong> both maintained their “A” status from previous cycles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hospital<\/strong><\/td>Grade (Spring 2026)<\/strong><\/td>Network<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead>
Bartow Regional Medical Center<\/strong><\/td>A<\/strong><\/td>BayCare<\/td><\/tr>
Winter Haven Hospital<\/strong><\/td>A<\/strong><\/td>BayCare<\/td><\/tr>
AdventHealth Heart of Florida<\/strong><\/td>A<\/strong><\/td>AdventHealth<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Mid-Range: “B” and “C” Rated Hospitals<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Lakeland Regional Health (LRH)<\/strong> currently holds a “C”<\/strong> grade. While it has made strides in certain patient experience measures, it continues to face challenges in specific categories like 15-day readmission rates and certain infection metrics compared to national averages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hospital<\/strong><\/td>Grade (Spring 2026)<\/strong><\/td>Network<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead>
AdventHealth Lake Wales<\/strong><\/td>B<\/strong><\/td>AdventHealth<\/td><\/tr>
Lakeland Regional Health<\/strong><\/td>C<\/strong><\/td>Independent<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Key Takeaways for 2026<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • BayCare\u2019s Consistency:<\/strong> Both BayCare hospitals in the county (Bartow and Winter Haven) have successfully “hardwired” safety protocols, keeping them in the “A” category for multiple consecutive years.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • National Trends:<\/strong> The 2026 report noted a significant nationwide decrease in healthcare-associated infections, including a 50% drop<\/strong> in central line-associated bloodstream infections since 2022.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • New “Grade Not Assigned” (GNA) Category:<\/strong> Due to a federal court ruling in early 2026, some hospitals that did not participate in the Leapfrog survey were not assigned a grade at all this year, rather than being graded based on secondary data.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
    \n

    Note:<\/strong> These grades focus specifically on preventable harm<\/strong>, such as infections, surgery errors, and staffing levels, rather than general medical outcomes or specialized care success.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Spring 2026 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades were released on May 6, 2026, showing a strong performance for several facilities in Polk County. Florida as a whole climbed to 7th… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"6481","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDVcL2Rvd25sb2FkLTEyLndlYnA_Zml0PTMwOSUyQzE2MyZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IlNwcmluZyAyMDI2IExlYXBmcm9nIEhvc3BpdGFsIFNhZmV0eSBHcmFkZXMgaGF2ZSBiZWVuIHJlbGVhc2VkIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.jDxXYRt8kSCaqBXTyKtImG4tgiclvKcJ7fbDFKrZTsAMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA1XC9kb3dubG9hZC0xMi53ZWJwIiwidHh0IjoiU3ByaW5nIDIwMjYgTGVhcGZyb2cgSG9zcGl0YWwgU2FmZXR5IEdyYWRlcyBoYXZlIGJlZW4gcmVsZWFzZWQiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.3zyzrT07p_YX8-vwAiewGBCxgI9WXGBMdu3AFX_iop8MQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[6481],"tags":[14611],"class_list":["post-65623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-spring-2026-leapfrog-hospital-safety-grades-have-been-released"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65623"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65625,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65623\/revisions\/65625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}