LEWISTON — Central Maine Medical Center announced it has received its eighth consecutive A grade for hospital safety from The Leapfrog Group. This national distinction recognizes CMMC’s success with protecting patients from harm and errors in the hospital.

“This is a remarkable achievement for CMMC, but should come as no surprise,” said Steve Littleson, president and chief executive officer of Central Maine Healthcare. “It is a validation of the extraordinary work our team members do every day on behalf of our patients. Getting eight consecutive A grades is impressive enough. But to be recognized for maintaining these high standards throughout the pandemic and other challenges facing the entire health care industry speaks volumes about the quality of care we provide at CMMC.”

The Leapfrog Group, an independent national watchdog organization, assigns an A, B, C, D, or F grade to general hospitals across the country based on over 30 national performance measures reflecting errors, injuries, accidents and infections, as well as systems hospitals have in place to prevent harm.

Only about half of Maine hospitals receive a Leapfrog hospital safety grade.

“I could not be prouder of our entire team,” said Central Maine Healthcare Chief Medical Officer John L. Alexander. “Patient safety is the main consideration in everything that happens here, so it is very encouraging to be recognized once again by the Leapfrog Group.”

In late 2021, the Leapfrog Group announced Bridgton Hospital and Rumford Hospital, both part of the Central Maine Healthcare system, were among the group’s top rural hospitals.

Developed under the guidance of a national expert panel, the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses up to 27 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign grades to more than 2,700 U.S. acute care hospitals twice a year. The Hospital Safety Grade’s methodology is peer-reviewed and fully transparent. The results are free to the public.