MOULTRIE, Ga. – Colquitt Regional Medical Center was awarded another ‘A’ from The Leapfrog Group for their spring 2019 Hospital Safety Grade — the hospital’s tenth such ranking.

The designation recognizes Colquitt Regional’s efforts in protecting patients from harm and providing safer health care, the hospital said in a press release. The Leapfrog Group is a national nonprofit organization committed to improving health care quality and safety for consumers and purchasers. The Safety Grade assigns an “A,” “B,” “C,” “D” or “F” grade to hospitals across the country based on their performance in preventing medical errors, injuries, accidents, infections and other harms to patients in their care.

“We are thrilled to receive an ‘A’ grade from The Leapfrog Group for the tenth consecutive time,” said Colquitt Regional President and CEO Jim Matney. “To have a top agency acknowledge our commitment to exceptional healthcare and patient safety is extremely rewarding for our staff.”

Developed under the guidance of a national expert panel, the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses 28 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign grades to more than 2,600 U.S. acute-care hospitals twice per year. The Hospital Safety Grade’s methodology is peer-reviewed and fully transparent, and the results are free to the public.

“To be recognized nationally as an ‘A’ hospital is an accomplishment the whole community should take pride in,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “Hospitals that earn an ‘A’ grade are making it a priority to protect patients from preventable medical harm and error. We congratulate hospital leaders, board members, staff, volunteers and clinicians who work so hard to earn this A.”

Colquitt Regional was awarded an “A” grade on Wednesday, when Leapfrog announced grades for the spring 2019 update. To see Colquitt Regional’s full grade details and to view the scores of other hospitals in the region, visit hospitalsafetygrade.org.

“I have witnessed the extensive training that our staff continually carries out to ensure we are establishing proper protocols when it comes to patient safety,” said Hospital Authority Chairman Maureen A. Yearta, Ed.D. “Hospital-acquired infections and harms are a concern for healthcare organizations nationwide. We are extremely proud to provide this level of transparency when it comes to our safety rating and to be named to the list of safest hospitals in the nation.”

Colquitt Regional is a 99-bed medical center located in Moultrie. Among other accomplishments, it most recently received certification as a Comprehensive Center for Bariatric Surgery under the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program, a joint program of the American College of Surgeons and the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.