What are the safest hospitals in Washington state? These 9 spots got ‘A’ grades

By Karlee Van De Venter

May 19, 2026 8:00 AM

Recovering Little Child Lying in the Hospital Bed Sleeping, Mother Holds Her Hand Comforting. Focus on the Hands. Emotional Family Moment. — Washington state’s safest hospitals include two medical care centers in Tacoma, according to The Leapfrog Group. Getty Images

How safe are hospitals in Washington state?

A total of nine hospitals across the Evergreen State got “A” grades for patient care, according to The Leapfrog Group.

The 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 more than 40 hospitals across Washington state.

Here’s which medical care facilities scored the highest:

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 nonprofit.

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.

“The good news is that hospitals across the country are making meaningful strides in patient safety and helping save countless lives,” Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, said in a May 6 news release. “But not all hospitals are the same. That’s why it’s so important for people to ... do their research when choosing a hospital.”

How safe are hospitals in Washington state?

In a state-by-state ranking, Washington state placed 40th for hospital safety, with 18.8% of hospitals receiving “A” grades.

That places the Evergreen State just under Missouri and just above Hawai’i.

Connecticut took the top spot, with more than 64% of hospitals in the state receiving “A” grades for patient care.

Across Washington state, 41 states received grades from The Leapfrog Group. None received an “F” grade.

An additional seven hospitals in Washington 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.

Where are Washington state’s safest hospitals?

Nine hospitals in Washington state received “A” grades for safety in The Leapfrog Group’s spring 2026 report, including two in Tacoma.

Here’s which ones:

EvergreenHealth in Kirkland
PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham
St. Anthony Hospital in Gig Harbor
St. Joseph Medical Center of Tacoma
St. Michael Medical Center in Silverdale
Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle
Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma
St. Anne Hospital in Burien
St. Clare Hospital in Lakewood

Of these, the top six hospitals received “straight A” grades, meaning that each hospital earned an “A” for at least five straight grade reports, according to The Leapfrog Group.

Both of the Tacoma hospitals that received “A” grades performed better than average for their practices to prevent errors plus surgery problems and certain safety problems.

PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham scored above average in terms of preventing infections and surgical issues including blood leakages, accidental cuts and serious breathing problems.