Huntsville Hospital on Sunday pushed back against a scorecard that graded the facility as an “F” on patient safety and medical errors, claiming the Leapfrog survey was “not accurate.”

“The Leapfrog survey is not an accurate measure of patient safety at Huntsville Hospital,” the facility said in a statement posted to its website.

“The hospital did not complete this voluntary 353-page survey, yet Leapfrog chose to publish a rating with incomplete information,” the statement continued. “This process is unfair to the thousands of dedicated clinicians working around the clock to care for the community and respond to emergencies anytime they are called.”

Twice a year, The Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit, releases grades on nearly 3,000 general acute-care hospitals nationwide.

The overall grade is based on scores across 32 categories, with possible grades of A, B, C, D, or F. Huntsville Hospital scored Cs in 2022 and 2023 and Ds in 2024.

The latest scorecard only focused on preventing medical errors and patient harm.

Using Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services records for July 2021 to June 2023, the spring 2025 report shows that, compared to other hospitals, Huntsville Hospital has a higher death rate among patients with serious post-surgical complications, like pneumonia, heart attack, or loss of kidney and liver function.

In the best-performing hospitals, 85 out of 1,000 patients who suffer such complications die. The number rose to 222 for Huntsville Hospital, close to the worst-performing hospital’s 236.

The Leapfrog Group states that skilled hospital teams can treat serious complications, which, if mismanaged, could result in a patient’s death.

On a positive note, the hospital scored the highest possible in preventing incidents of a surgeon accidentally leaving an object inside a patient’s body. There were no such cases in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services July 2021 to June 2023 record.

And according to its website, Huntsville Hospital is the top facility in north Alabama and No. 2 in Alabama per the 2024-25 U.S. News “Best Hospitals” rankings. It boasted 10 high-performing conditions and surgery procedures.

The facility boasted the worldwide recognition it received in its statement.

“Forbes considers HH one of the best employers in Alabama and Newsweek named HH one of America’s Greatest Workplaces for Women. HH’s cardiac surgery programs was recognized by Healthgrades as one of America’s 50 best programs seven years in a row. HH is a certified stroke center and accredited by the American College of Surgeon’s Commission on Cancer. Blue Cross and Blue Shield recognizes HH for distinction in cardiac care, spine surgery, bariatric surgery, and maternity care,” the statement went on to say.

“Every employee and physician in the HH Health System completes mandatory training in patient safety and high reliability. HH excels in most quality ratings and scores poorly in a Leapfrog survey that it does not complete.”

For its assessment, The Leap Frog Group uses surveys submitted by hospitals, data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other sources.

But Huntsville Hospital did not submit a survey for the safety grading, which likely worsens its score in some categories. Because of that, it received the lowest scores in four categories: computerized medication orders by doctors (which prevents errors), safe medication administration, hand-washing, and whether specialty-trained doctors care for ICU patients.

The absence of the survey information also meant no scores in three categories: staff working together to prevent errors, effective leadership to prevent mistakes, and nursing and bedside care for patients.