Best Hospitals for Patient Safety in 2026

• Healthgrades not too long ago introduced the recipients of the 2026 Affected person Security Excellence Awards.
• The awards acknowledge hospitals that present the very best high quality care and excel at stopping severe security occasions.
• The 2026 recipients embody 438 hospitals from 40 states and signify the highest 10% of hospitals nationwide for affected person security.

Healthgrades has introduced the recipients of the 2026 Patient Safety Excellence Awards, which “acknowledge hospitals that excel at offering top-quality care whereas stopping severe security occasions throughout hospital stays.”

This 12 months’s recipients signify the highest 10% of hospitals nationwide for affected person security and embody 438 hospitals from 40 states.

Healthgrades’ annual evaluation discovered that greater than 100,000 affected person security occasions might have been prevented between 2022 and 2024 if all hospitals had carried out on the similar degree as those who obtained a 2026 Affected person Security Excellence Award.

Sufferers handled at award-winning hospitals had been additionally considerably much less prone to expertise the 4 most typical affected person security indicators (PSIs)—severe however preventable problems that account for about 78% of all security occasions. These embody:

• In-hospital falls that end in fractures (52.4% much less seemingly)
• Collapsed lungs associated to procedures or surgical procedure across the chest (57.5% much less seemingly)
• Catheter-related bloodstream infections acquired within the hospital (67.8% much less seemingly)
• Stress sores or mattress sores developed throughout a hospital keep (71.9% much less seemingly)

“The info behind this 12 months’s Affected person Security Excellence Award highlights how measurable enhancements in security can stop 1000’s of problems,” Alana Biggers, MPH, medical advisor at Healthgrades, mentioned in a press release.

“Hospitals that prioritize evidence-based security practices not solely obtain higher medical outcomes, but in addition domesticate a tradition the place sufferers come first. These insights give people and households the knowledge they should make assured and higher knowledgeable healthcare choices.”

Hospitals acknowledged with the 2026 Affected person Security Excellence Award had been recognized by an evaluation by Healthgrades analyzing how effectively services stop severe security problems throughout hospital stays.

To find out the recipients, Healthgrades analyzed hospital efficiency utilizing inpatient MedPAR information and evaluated services throughout 13 affected person security indicators (PSIs).

These indicators monitor severe problems that may happen throughout hospital care, resembling respiratory failure after surgical procedure, surgical infections, and extreme bleeding following procedures.

The evaluation compares hospital efficiency nationwide utilizing risk-adjusted information to account for variations in affected person populations.

Outcomes throughout the 13 indicators are mixed into an general affected person security rating for every hospital, enabling services to be ranked by how successfully they stop these problems.

Hospitals that rank among the many high 10% nationally for affected person security earn the Affected person Security Excellence Award.

To qualify, services should additionally meet a number of eligibility necessities, together with assembly medical high quality thresholds, reporting information on not less than 7 of 8 core affected person security indicators, and having no documented circumstances of overseas objects left in sufferers throughout a process.

Hospital rankings and security awards can present helpful steerage for sufferers evaluating services, significantly once they spotlight measurable variations in outcomes, resembling complication charges and preventable security occasions.

“Rankings like these supplied by Healthgrades ought to have the ability to help healthcare shoppers in making higher choices for themselves and their family members,” Robert Bonar, Dr.H.A., the Gordon A. Friesen Professor of Healthcare Administration on the George Washington College Milken Institute Faculty of Public Well being, previously informed Healthline.

Nonetheless, specialists say these scores are greatest used as one instrument amongst many when selecting the place to obtain care. Components resembling a affected person’s particular medical wants, particular person physicians’ expertise, and proposals from trusted healthcare suppliers can even play an necessary position in making one of the best determination.

Bonar additionally beforehand famous that when sufferers are evaluating well being data, they need to prioritize sources that “work laborious to base their suggestions on statistically sound outcomes, measurable information, complication charges — together with surgical an infection charges — and morbidity and mortality information.”

Taking a look at a number of sources of knowledge — together with hospital security scores, affected person critiques, and conversations with healthcare professionals — may help sufferers get a extra full image when evaluating their choices.

The complete Affected person Security Excellence Award recipient checklist and methodology can be found on the Healthgrades website.

*Healthgrades and Healthline are a part of the RVO Well being portfolio of manufacturers.