The Leapfrog Group spring hospital safety grades are now public and Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital finally achieved the A its leaders have anticipated since 2024.

Orlando Health Sebastian River Hospital held steady at a B, but Vero’s nearest Level 1 trauma center and hospital of choice for many South County residents, HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital, slipped from a B to a C for this grading period. It was not long ago, in Spring 2023, that Lawnwood was an A hospital by Leapfrog criteria.

“This spring, we are proud to recognize the dedication of our caregivers, reflected in the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades for Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital which improved to an A,” said hospital Vice President and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Richard Rothman. 

“These results reflect our continued focus on strengthening safety, quality, and the overall patient experience for those who trust us with their care, and for the physicians who trust Cleveland Clinic with their patients.

“We continue to focus on what matters most, striving to provide the highest quality, safest patient-centered care; supporting research and clinical innovation to benefit the people we serve,” Rothman added. “We recognize that no rating methodology is perfect; therefore, we encourage individuals to use a variety of sources to help identify quality care."

The Leapfrog scoring system, which relies heavily on federal data gleaned from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services or CMS, is purposely smoothed out over a period of up to two years, depending upon the criteria being evaluated.

This can be good for the hospitals as one challenging season won’t necessarily tank their grade. But it can also be bad for a hospital like Sebastian River which has only been under new Orlando Health ownership since October 2024, which means it’s carrying some safety data from Steward Healthcare’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy era when the hospital experienced major issues with staffing, supplies and a lack of facility and equipment maintenance. That era could take another season or two to roll off.

Cleveland Clinic leaders said they similarly suffered from a rocky patch during computerized records and communication system changes that resulted in lower patient survey scores.

What seemed to boost the Vero Beach hospital up to an A this time around – and Lawnwood of Ft. Pierce down to a C – were post-surgical complications and infections. Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital made significant strides in this area, while Lawnwood slipped.

The divergence of the safety grades of these competing hospitals could be a factor to expectant mothers, as Cleveland Clinic aims to capture a greater percentage of the maternity market, with $7 million in renovations to the labor and delivery unit unveiled in December.

Last year only about 75 percent of babies born to Indian River County parents were delivered in Vero. The other 25 percent of moms delivered in Fort Pierce, Tradition, Melbourne or Orlando. Orlando Health Sebastian does not offer maternity services.

Indian River County Hospital District Trustee Paul Westcott, who has encouraged Rothman and the Cleveland leadership to invest in a Level 2 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit or NICU in Vero, sees the new A safety grade as another motive to keep expectant moms in-county.

“I’m not surprised by the positive scores,” Westcott said. “Dr Rothman and his leadership team have been working hard and are committed to focusing on what needs to be done. I’m very pleased with this report.

“It is also worth noting the contrast with the grade for Lawnwood when you consider the local doctors pushing their patients there for labor and delivery. This recent reporting strongly suggests that there is limited need for families to travel out of county for labor and delivery care,” Westcott said.

Overall, in comparing the two hospital systems which operate in Indian River County, half of Cleveland Clinic’s four hospitals earned an A this time, while 40 percent of Orlando Health’s hospital’s earned an A. Cleveland Clinic hospitals as a whole are trending upward faster than Orlando Health’s, but both systems are headed in the right direction in terms of composite safety scores.

If the hospital systems’ acute-care adult hospitals’ scores were converted to a GPA, Cleveland Clinic’s hospitals have improved from a 2.75 GPA in Spring 2023 to a 3.5 for Spring 2026. Orlando Health’s hospitals have gone up from a 3.0 GPA in Spring 2023 to a 3.3 for Spring 2026.

Across Florida, 164 of 239 hospitals submitted sufficient data to be graded for both Fall 2025 and Spring 2026. Of those, 96 hospitals or 58.5 percent of facilities scored an A for Spring, 49 hospitals or 29.9 percent scored a B, 17 scored a C, and two scored a D. Zero hospitals failed.

Twenty-three hospitals improved by one letter grade like Cleveland Clinic Indian River, 10 hospitals dropped one letter grade like HCA Lawnwood, and 131 hospitals kept the same letter grade like Orlando Health Sebastian River. Nearly 89 percent of Florida’s participating hospitals earned an A or a B for this reporting period.

The Leapfrog win comes on the heels of positive financial news for Cleveland Clinic’s Vero hospital.

Last month Rothman delivered his annual financials to the Indian River County Hospital District showing a vastly improved bottom line after more than $200 million in total losses since Cleveland took over the former community-run hospital in 2019.

The hospital, which leased the campus land and buildings from county taxpayers for 75 years, is also reducing its dependence on hospital district funding by roughly a quarter million dollars over the coming year and does not plan to expend all of the funding awarded for the current fiscal year ending Sept. 30.