2025 Marks Michigan’s First Year Without a
Top Hospital, Raising Patient Safety Concerns

What does this mean for Michiganders?

The Economic Alliance of Michigan (EAM) announced that zero hospitals and zero ambulatory surgery centers (ASC) in Michigan received a 2025 national award for excellence in health care quality and safety from The Leapfrog Group today, raising concern for Michiganders and the care they are receiving. Nationally, a total of 156 hospitals were selected as Top Hospitals, including 15 Top Children’s Hospitals, 52 Top General Hospitals, 16 Top Rural Hospitals and 73 Top Teaching Hospitals. A total of 37 ASCs were selected as Top ASCs.

This year marks the first time since the Top Hospital Awards began in 2006 that Michigan did not earn a Top Hospital designation. “The absence of a Michigan Top Hospital this year is deeply concerning. It underscores the urgent need to improve quality and safety for patients across our state,” said President and CEO of EAM, Bret Jackson.

Last month, EAM also announced Michigan’s Fall 2025 Hospital Safety Grades came back as the worst ever recorded, with the state ranking 35th nationally and only 17 of 79 hospitals earning an “A” grade. Leapfrog estimates 160,000 lives are lost annually from avoidable medical errors, and 50,000 lives could be saved if lower-performing hospitals improved to an “A.”

Major health systems showed wide variation in performance, including three of four Detroit Medical Center hospitals receiving an “F.”

“Michigan’s healthcare system is moving in the wrong direction. Patients and employers continue to pay more for hospital care while seeing a decrease in quality and safety— and that must change. Last month’s hospital safety grades were alarmingly low, and for the first time, no Michigan hospital received an award. As the saying goes ‘There is no good price for bad care’.” added Jackson.

Since 2000, hospital prices have risen by more than 250%, triple the rate of inflation. Currently, hospital prices in Michigan for commercial health plans increased from 156% of the Medicare rate in 2017 to 209% of the Medicare rate in 2024. These hospitals only need about 111% on average across the state to break even.

The award honors hospitals and ASCs that demonstrate the highest performance in the nation on quality and patient safety, including ethical billing and informed patient consent procedures, lower infection rates, prevention of medication errors and surgical safety. To see the full methodology and list of institutions honored as 2025 Top Hospitals, please visit http://www.leapfroggroup.org/tophospitals. To see the full list of institutions honored as 2025 Top ASCs, please visit www.leapfroggroup.org/ratings-report/top-ascs.