South County, Roger Williams hospitals slip in new national ranking while Westerly Hospital continues its "A" streak
By Alexander Castro, Rhode Island Current
Rhode Island Hospital and the Miriam Hospital in Providence, Newport Hospital, and Westerly Hospital all earned an A grade from the Leapfrog Group in results published Thursday.
Landmark Medical Center in Woonsocket received a B. Kent Hospital, South County Hospital in South Kingstown and Our Lady of Fatima Hospital in North Providence all received a C. Roger Williams Medical Center in Providence received a D.
None of the Ocean State’s hospitals received the lowest grade of F.
VA hospitals, children’s hospitals, psychiatric hospitals are excluded from the report.
The Washington, D.C.-based Leapfrog Group assigns letter grades to hospitals based on its surveys plus safety data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The ratings are updated twice a year, in spring and fall, and calculated across over 30 measures related to errors in care, infections, injuries, and how effectively hospitals minimize and prevent harm to patients.
Rhode Island also had four A’s in last fall’s report card, but the lineup shifted this year: Rhode Island Hospital moved up after earning a B last year, while South County Hospital dropped from an A to a C.
The state’s collective ranking fell from spring 2025, when Rhode Island ranked second nationally for its percentage of A-rated hospitals, which was 55.6%. The new fall rankings have Rhode Island tied with California for sixth place, with 44.4% of both state’s hospitals receiving A grades.
Back in the spring, five hospitals had A grades — all four that earned A grades this fall, plus Woonsocket’s Landmark Medical Center, which dropped to a B. A spokesperson for Landmark did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
No hospitals received a D in the spring.
Rhode Island Hospital, The Miriam, and Newport are all owned by Brown University Health, formerly known as Lifespan. Saint Anne’s Hospital in Fall River, Massachusetts, acquired by Brown University Health in September 2024, also earned an A.
Both The Miriam and Newport have earned top marks in at least the past five Leapfrog rankings, the only hospitals in the state with “Straight A” status. Both hospitals have consistently earned A’s since spring 2023.
St. Anne’s in Fall River also has “Straight A” status, having earned A grades since at least the spring 2022 rankings.
Sarah Frost, chief of hospital operations and president of Rhode Island Hospital and Hasbro Children’s Hospital, said in a statement released Thursday that the report card shows Brown Health’s “commitment to delivering outstanding patient care across our facilities.”
“I couldn’t be more grateful to our amazing staff — their teamwork, skill, and unwavering focus on patient safety and outcomes are the driving force behind this national recognition,” Frost said.
“Consistently earning an ‘A’ demonstrates a long-term, organization-wide commitment to putting patient safety first,” Leah Binder, the Leapfrog Group’s president and CEO, said in the statement released by Brown Health.
The new report marks the third time Westerly Hospital, owned by Yale New Haven Health, has received an A.
“Patient safety is our top priority and the foundation of every interaction, decision and care plan,” Westerly Hospital President Richard Lisitano said in a statement Thursday.
“I’m proud to recognize our dedicated team for their exceptional performance and unwavering commitment to delivering safe, high-quality care,” Lisitano added. “Their collaboration and focus continue to make a meaningful difference in the lives of our patients.”
Poor performance for CharterCARE safety net hospital
The lowest performer of all, the 220-bed Roger Williams Medical Center, is one of two properties owned by CharterCARE, a local subsidiary of the bankrupt Prospect Medical Holdings. Both Roger WiIlliams and Fatima are in possible danger of closing by the end of the year if the protracted and still unfinalized sale process to a new owner, the nonprofit Centurion Foundation, can’t be resolved. Centurion Foundation has struggled to lure investors to back $150 million in bonds needed for the deal to close, but state leaders are in the process of courting another potential buyer, the Prime Healthcare Foundation.
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“CharterCARE is fully committed to safe, quality patient care and is nationally accredited by The Joint Commission and other organizations that survey hospitals,” Otis Brown, a CharterCARE spokesperson, said via email Thursday.
The two CharterCARE hospitals declined to respond to Leapfrog’s survey questions used to inform the rankings’ metrics, such as those related to effective leadership and nursing and bedside care for patients.
Brown said the Roger Williams Medical Center and Our Lady of Fatima Hospital “choose not to participate” in these surveys, which he claimed 50% of hospitals nationwide also decline to do.
According to the Leapfrog group’s website, survey participants accounted “for 80% of all inpatient beds in U.S. hospitals” in 2024.
“Leapfrog assigns a letter grade whether you report data or not,” Brown said. “This means they have created an inaccurate picture of the quality we provide to patients. Our accreditations, our CMS-star rating improvements, and other benchmarks, speak solidly to that success.”
Leapfrog’s methodologies have attracted criticism from health policy wonks in the past. In 2019, a team of independent researchers ranked hospital grading systems in an article in New England Journal of Medicine Catalyst. Leapfrog received a C-, the second lowest of the four hospital rating systems reviewed.
Leapfrog has responded to many similar criticisms publicly, such as a 2023 document which noted that over 2,300 survey respondents that year, equivalent to about 75% of hospital beds nationally. The company regularly accepts public comments on its survey process.
Moving from inpatient to outpatient
Dr. Kevin Charpentier, the chief medical officer at South County Health, told Rhode Island Current that Leapfrog’s methodology does not capture the full picture of the patients who receive care at the 100-bed hospital.
As the hospital is shifting towards more outpatient, minimally invasive, or robotic procedures, Charpentier wrote via email that “more patients are now recovering safely at home rather than in the hospital.” In fact, the survey “evaluates only about 19% of the patients we serve,” mostly those admitted for inpatient surgery.
“While our recent Leapfrog grade shifted, this reflects historical data and does not capture the exceptional, real-time care and ongoing improvements happening across our health system today,” Charpentier said.
“Importantly, the number of Leapfrog-reported events has not changed since we earned consecutive ‘A’ grades; however, the significant shift in patient volume from inpatient to outpatient settings has altered how those results are calculated, disproportionately affecting our overall score,” Charpentier said.
Charpentier also noted that South County Hospital won a 2025 Healthgrades Outstanding Patient Experience Award.
Doreen Scanlon Gavigan, a spokesperson for Care New England, which owns Kent County Hospital in Warwick, acknowledged a request for comment Thursday and was still working on a response as of 6 p.m.
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