A hospital grading system assigned Huntsville Hospital the worst possible overall grade – F – in its latest scoring exclusively focused on preventing medical errors and patient harm.

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.

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 team can treat serious complications, which, if mismanaged, could result in a patient’s death.

Huntsville Hospital did not immediately respond to requests for comment for this story.

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.

That ranking, however, has the hospital with a three out of five stars in patient experience.

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.

Of the remaining 25 categories, Huntsville Hospital scored below average in 20. For example, it scored below average for drug-resistant infections, diarrhea-causing bacteria infection, kidney injury after surgery, dangerous bedsores, patient falls and injuries, and falls causing broken hips.

The Leapfrog Group stated that its system, developed by a select group of medical experts is the only hospital ratings program focused exclusively on preventing patient harm.

A ranking of 50 states by percentage of hospitals with A grades for at least two and a half years places Alabama 39th, with 4% in that category.