Mayo Clinic Health System — Albert Lea and Austin are two of five MCHS hospitals to score high safety marks from the Leapfrog Group, an independent, national nonprofit run by employers and other large purchasers of health benefits. Mayo Clinic’s hospitals in Arizona, Florida and Rochester also earned an “A” for patient safety from Leapfrog.

“We continue to improve safety for our patients through ongoing learning, process change and our commitment to safety,” says Paula Santrach, M.D., associate dean of value creation, Mayo Clinic.

Mayo Clinic hospitals that received an “A” are:

—Mayo Clinic Hospital, Phoenix, Ariz.

—Mayo Clinic Hospital, Jacksonville, Fla.

—Mayo Clinic Health System hospitals in Fairmont, Austin, Albert Lea and Red Wing, Minn., and La Crosse, Wis.

—Rochester Methodist Hospital, Rochester

—Saint Marys Hospital, Rochester

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Score uses 26 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to produce a single score representing a hospital’s overall capacity to keep patients safe from infections, injuries and medical and medication errors.

The panel includes members from the University of Michigan, Harvard University, Stanford University, Johns Hopkins University, University of California and Vanderbilt University.

Leapfrog is one of many ranking groups that recognize Mayo Clinic as a top choice for patients.

Note: The grades used in the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Score program are derived from expert analysis of publicly available data using national evidence-based measures of patient safety. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Score program grades hospitals on their overall performance in keeping patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors. For more information, visit

hospitalsafetyscore.org.