Despite a number of recent challenges and changes, Mercy Medical Center in Aurora recently got a top grade from an independent hospital watchdog organization.
The Leapfrog Group, which according to its website grades nearly 3,000 hospitals on how well they keep their patients safe, recently gave Mercy Medical Center an “A” grade for the spring 2025 period. That’s the highest grade a hospital can receive.
“Achieving an ‘A’ hospital safety grade recognizes Mercy Medical Center’s unwavering commitment to patient safety and its dedication to providing the highest level of care possible,” Leah Binder, president and CEO of the Leapfrog Group, said in a news release from the hospital.
Leapfrog’s grading of Mercy is detailed on the organization’s website, which shows that the hospital was graded across five categories: “infections,” “problems with surgery,” “safety problems,” “practices to prevent error” and “doctors, nurses and hospital staff.”
Each category contains several metrics that contributed to the hospital’s overall grade, and most of these metrics showed Mercy performing at or above average. For example, Mercy scored higher than average on patient falls and injuries, the responsiveness of hospital staff and the spread of various infections, among others.
However, Mercy Medical Center did score lower than average on some metrics, including nursing and bedside care for patients, serious breathing problems after surgery, harmful events following a procedure and collapsed lungs.
An advanced breakdown of the scoring, available on the organization’s website, shows the data used in the hospital’s grading came from 2024 or earlier.
In Mercy Medical Center’s news release about the results of the grade, Leapfrog CEO Binder congratulated the hospital and “its leadership, clinicians, staff and volunteers for creating a culture where patients come first.”
The hospital’s CEO, Fernando Gruta, said in the news release that he was grateful for the “amazing, talented staff” at the hospital. Leapfrog’s recent grade, he said, shows the passion and commitment of the hospital’s physicians, nurses and frontline staff.
Last year, Mercy received a “B” in both the spring and fall grading periods, according to Leapfrog’s website.
Mercy Medical Center’s newly improved grade comes soon after Prime Healthcare purchased it and several other hospitals from Ascension at the start of March.
In addition to the change in leadership, Mercy has also been dealing with the loss of a significant number of doctors as Advocate Healthcare slowly pulled out of the hospital over the past year or more as well as the loss of its Level II Trauma Center designation over allegations of understaffing.
Hospital officials have said that, despite the changes, Mercy Medical Center continues to provide health care services including emergency and critical care without any gaps in coverage.
A Mercy spokesperson also previously told The Beacon-News that the hospital had already started the process of voluntarily withdrawing its trauma center designation when the state revoked it.
However, state Rep. Barbara Hernandez, D-Aurora, said in a statement Friday that she is “in active communication” with both the Illinois Department of Public Health and Prime Healthcare to “find a solution that will allow compliance to be restored.”
Because Mercy no longer has its trauma center designation, local emergency medical services are currently redirecting patients who require that level of care — such as those who suffered serious injuries in car crashes, falls or violence — to other area hospitals that are still designated as trauma centers.
Those hospitals include Rush Copley Medical Center, the other hospital in Aurora, and Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital in Geneva.
Delnor Hospital also received an “A” ranking from Leapfrog for the spring 2025 period. However, Rush Copley received a “B.”
In a statement sent to The Beacon-News, a Rush Copley spokesperson said the hospital “sits on the cusp of an A grade from Leapfrog” but earned a “B” because of “the fluidity of their methodology and impact of even the slightest change.”
“Having been awarded an A more than 20 times by Leapfrog for excellence in safety, we anticipate that the medical center will again receive top marks in a future cycle,” the spokesperson said, “especially given our history of success with Leapfrog and the fact that Rush Copley continues to be recognized as high performing in several specialties by U.S. News & World Report.”
rsmith@chicagotribune.com
