How safe are Olympia-area hospitals? See latest scores for patient safety
How safe are hospitals in the Olympia area? One national nonprofit organization is offering an answer.
The Leapfrog Group grades close to 3,000 hospitals across the country twice a year “based on their ability to protect patients from medical errors, accidents, injuries and infections.”
Those types of “largely preventable problems harm one in four hospital inpatients and cause as many as 250,000 deaths each year,” according to the organization, which gives hospitals grades ranging from A to F.
The Leapfrog Group evaluated dozens of general hospitals in Washington state for fall 2025, including 10 in the Tacoma area and three in and near Olympia.
Here’s a look at how Olympia-area hospitals fared:
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Which Olympia-area hospital got the highest grade?
One Olympia-area hospital earned a B grade from The Leapfrog Group in its fall 2025 report: MultiCare Capital Medical Center in Olympia.
The highest-grading Olympia-area hospital excelled in several areas, including medication administration, handwashing and leadership around error prevention, the report said.
The hospital also performed well in multiple infection and safety categories, including efforts to prevent dangerous bed sores, blood clots and air or gas bubbles in the blood.
MultiCare Capital Medical Center had room for improvement in some other areas, including having specially-trained doctors caring for patients in intensive care, the report said.
In a statement to The Olympian, MultiCare officials said, “We are committed to keeping our patients safe and free from harm every day.””
Patient safety is at the heart of everything we do,” MultiCare officials said. “We take pride in continuously investing in quality and safety initiatives across all our hospitals — because our patients deserve the very best care.”
Which Olympia area hospitals got C’s?
According to The Leapfrog Group, two Olympia-area hospitals received C grades:
- Providence Centralia Hospital in Centralia
- Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia
Providence Centralia Hospital performed well in multiple areas, including preventing patient falls and injuries and air or gas bubbles in the blood, the fall 2025 report said, while Providence St. Peter Hospital excelled at preventing collapsed lungs and dangerous blood clots.
Both hospitals had room for improvement, The Leapfrog Group said, including in leadership around error prevention and having specially trained doctors caring for patients in the intensive care unit.
In a statement, Providence Swedish officials said that “our commitment to providing safe, high-quality care to patients remains unwavering.”
“While Leapfrog offers one perspective on hospital performance, we believe that its proprietary methodology and grading system do not fully reflect the breadth and depth of our continuous advancements in patient safety and quality,” the officials said.
According to Providence Swedish, the Centralia and Olympia hospitals have adopted Dexur, a “cutting-edge technology that empowers us to monitor quality scores and proactively identify areas for improvement.”
This innovative strategy strengthens our ability to concentrate on the critical aspects of patient care, ensuring we consistently uphold the highest standards of safety and quality,” the statement read.
“As always, we remain focused on delivering high-quality care to our community and ensuring all who walk through our doors receive safe, comprehensive and compassionate care,” the officials said.
How does The Leapfrog Group grade hospitals?
The Leapfrog Group evaluates hospitals across five categories: infections; problems with surgery; safety problems; practices to prevent errors; and doctors, nurses and hospital staff.
It uses up to 32 patient safety measures, from nursing care hours to falls, in its grading, according to the group.
The group relies on experts to help select the measures and create the methodology, it said, adding that it largely uses publicly available data.
The Leapfrog Group doesn’t grade some types of hospitals, including specialty hospitals and children’s hospitals.
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