Newport Hospital, which for the last three years received top ratings for safety from a national organization that measures patient safety, slipped in the spring 2026 rankings from the top A rating to a B.
In the latest rankings, released today by the Washington, D.C. Leapfrog Group, three hospitals in Rhode Island – The Miriam, Rhode Island, and Westerly, received A ratings. Besides Newport, Kent Hospital (Warwick) also received a B, with Landmark (Woonsocket) and South County (Wakefield) Hospitals receiving C ratings. Our Lady of Fatima (North Providence) and Roger Williams Medical Center (Providence) were not rated.
Overall, hospitals in Rhode Island slipped from being ranked sixth best nationally for safety last fall by Leapfrog Group to 18 this spring. In New England, Rhode Island ranked fourth, behind Connecticut (first), Massachusetts (16th), and Maine (17th).
Leapfrog Group was founded in 2000 as an independent national nonprofit organization, which it says is a “driving a movement for giant leaps for patient safety,” the “only ratings program focused exclusively on how safe hospitals are for patients.”
It makes its grade level measures in the fall and spring. Overall, it found “significant improvement in 17 measures of errors and infections,” across the country, including healthcare-associated infections, bar code medication administration, computerized physician order entry and five patient experience measures.
Newport Hospital, in the fall and spring measures in 2023 – 2025 had consistently been awarded A ratings, slipping this spring to a B.
The Miriam, since 2023 has consistently received A ratings; Rhode Island has improved from a C rating in the fall of 2023 to A this spring; and Westerly improved from B ratings in the spring and fall of 2023, a B in the spring of 2025, and A ratings last fall and this spring.
Kent Hospital’s B ranking was also an improvement from last year when it was awarded a C in both the spring and fall. In 2023, Kent also received B rankings in the spring and fall.
For both Landmark and South County, the C ratings were a considerable downgrade. Last year, Landmark received a B in the fall and A in the spring, the same in 2024. In 2023, Landmark received A ratings.
In 2024, South County received A ratings in both spring and fall. The hospital slipped to a B rating last spring and C rating last fall.
