How safe are Tri-Cities hospitals? See latest grades for patient care

Looking for a hospital in Tri-Cities, but unsure where to go?

The Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit organization focused on increasing safety and transparency in the U.S. health system, issues Hospital Safety Grade reports twice a year for general hospitals across the United States.

Grades are based on hospitals’ ability to “protect patients from medical errors, accidents, injuries and infections,” The Leapfrog Group said.

The most recent report, released May 6, includes two hospitals in Tri-Cities.

Here’s how local medical care centers scored:

How does The Leapfrog Group evaluate hospitals?

The Leapfrog Group grades hospitals on a scale from A to F, with A being the highest grade and F the lowest.

The grade system is the only hospital rating focused entirely on patient safety, according to a May 6 news release from The Leapfrog Group.

The nonprofit analyzes up to 22 measures in five key categories: infections, problems with surgery, safety problems, practices to prevent errors and doctors, nurses and hospital staff.

These measures, which include hand hygiene, air embolisms, in-hospital falls and communication factors, are used to determine a grade representing a hospital’s “performance in keeping patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors,” according to The Leapfrog Group’s methodology report.

Nine hospitals in the Evergreen State received “A” grades, according to The Leapfrog Group.

None of the 41 hospitals graded in Washington state received “F” grades.

Seven hospitals in Washington state were not given safety grades in the spring 2026 report, following a recent federal court ruling.

For its spring 2026 report, The Leapfrog Group said it did not assign grades to 450 hospitals nationwide that chose not to participate in its 2024 or 2025 survey. Instead, those facilities were labeled as “grade not assigned.”

Some hospitals are not evaluated at all, including critical access hospitals, rural emergency hospitals, mental health facilities and any hospitals missing too many scores in their dataset, The Leapfrog Group said.

How safe is Trios Southridge Hospital in Kennewick?

Trios Southridge Hospital, 3810 Plaza Way in Kennewick, got a ”B” for patient care in The Leapfrog Group’s spring 2026 report.

The hospital received a B grade in the organization’s report cards for spring 2025 and fall 2025, got a C grade in spring 2024 and fall 2024.

Trios performed average or better than average in its efforts to prevent infections and practices to prevent errors such as handwashing and safe medication administration, according to The Leapfrog Group.

The hospital performed about average in terms of preventing problems with surgery, such as blood leakage and accidental cuts, and safety problems including bed sores, blood clots and patient falls.

The hospital had better-than-average ratings for several staff-related measures, but scored lower than average when it came to communication with doctors and nurses.

Why did Richland hospital get ‘C’ grade for patient care?

In its latest report, The Leapfrog Group gave Kadlec Regional Medical Center, 888 Swift Blvd. in Richland, a “C” grade for safety.

The hospital received C grades in the group’s spring 2025 and fall 2025 reports. It was only rated once in 2024, receiving a C grade in the spring.

Kadlec performed worse than average in multiple infection-related measures, including efforts to prevent blood infections and urinary tract infections. The only infection-related category where it performed better than average involved sepsis after surgery.

The hospital performed average or above average in most measures relating to problems with surgery, except accidental cuts and tears.

Kadlec performed worse than average when it came to some practices to prevent errors, such as handwashing and safe medication administration.

It was average at communication between doctors and nurses, but above average in terms of bedside care for patients and specially trained doctors in the intensive care unit, according to the spring 2026 report.