WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Five hospitals in Palm Beach County are asking a federal judge to stop the publication of hospital safety grades, accusing a nonprofit of running a “pay for play” scheme to artificially boost ratings.
According to the lawsuit filed in federal court, five hospitals owned by Tenet Healthcare Corporation claim The Leapfrog Group is violating the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act by publishing “reckless, misleading and commercially motivated” safety grades.
The following five hospitals are all in the Palm Beach Health Network and have the following Spring 2025 grades, according to The Leapfrog Group:
Good Samaritan Medical Center – D
Delray Medical Center – F
Palm Beach Gardens Community Hospital – F
St. Mary’s Medical Center – D
West Boca Medical Center – D
The Leapfrog Group, based in Washington, D.C., alerted WPTV to the lawsuit filed in April in the Southern District of Florida. A spokesperson said Tenet Healthcare Corporation is paying a law firm to suppress a nonprofit patient safety watchdog group instead of investing resources in improving their safety.
“Hospital Safety Grades are not automatically improved if a hospital participates in the Leapfrog Hospital Survey, nor are Safety Grades automatically lowered if a hospital declines to participate,” wrote the nonprofit in a prepared statement sent to WPTV.
The company also said it uses Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) data as well.
Attorney Mary Beth Maloney, who is representing the hospitals, said the five hospitals stopped submitting the application to the nonprofit during the COVID-19 pandemic about four years ago. She said the application was “burdensome” for administrators and decided not to participate in the survey, which also permits The Leapfrog Group to commercialize the data for profit reasons.
She said the hospitals’ ratings stayed consistent while not reporting data for years. Then, the attorneys for the hospital claim The Leapfrog Group gave more weight to metrics only found in their survey for grades like “handwashing” or “nursing and bedside care for patients.”
“The methodology only changed at the end of last year,” Maloney said. “For a number of years, there was no change in our Leapfrog ratings as a result of our not participating. It’s only because of this change in methodology that we felt like we had to go to court and the change of methodology is Leapfrog using these uniquely Leapfrog metrics.”
WPTV asked if a hospital, which didn’t participate in the Leapfrog Survey, got an A. We’re still working on getting an answer to that question. Regardless, the ratings are now public, and patients can decide for themselves.
Read the full lawsuit below:
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