2025 EAM Hospital Patient Safety Awards

Hospitals rarely held accountable for the financial costs associated with preventable adverse events

In observance of National Patient Safety Awareness Week (March 9^th – 15^th, 2025), the Economic Alliance for Michigan (EAM), a nonprofit group comprised of Michigan’s largest employers and unions, announced the recipients of the 2025 EAM Hospital Patient Safety Awards, recognizing hospitals in Michigan consistently performing high marks and improvements in patient safety and quality of care. This marks the tenth year for the awards.

Patients tend to select a doctor and automatically choose the hospital the doctor is associated with. However, patient safety can differ greatly between hospitals on things like infection rates, surgical errors, and patient injuries. Choosing a safer hospital may be the difference between life and death.

This year, thirteen hospitals in Michigan earned a Hospital Patient Safety Award. EAM started the awards to raise awareness of the need for transparency for hospital outcomes and prices, and as a way to recognize the hospitals that work very hard to deliver the best all-around care. According to the Leapfrog Group, a national watchdog organization for patient safety, an estimated 500 people die every day in American hospitals due to medical errors. When a preventable mishap occurs to a patient, the patient is more than likely the one who financially pays for the mistake and the hospital is rarely held accountable.

“Increased hospital patient safety contributes to lowering the cost of healthcare. Employers, patients and their families are often responsible for the costs that occur when an adverse event happens during a hospital stay – creating a preventable financial burden,” said Bret Jackson, EAM President. “Congratulations to the hospitals who earned an award this year. Your prioritization of patient safety is appreciated and one that all hospitals should invest time in.”

Hospitals can achieve two different awards, the Excellence Award and the Improvement Award. To be considered for an award, hospitals must have participated in the 2024 Leapfrog Hospital Survey, demonstrating the hospital’s commitment to transparency. The Leapfrog Group is the nation’s premier advocate of transparency in health care—collecting, analyzing, and disseminating data to inform value-based purchasing and improved decision-making.

Hospitals receiving the Excellence Award participated in the annual Leapfrog Group survey and maintained all “A’s” with Hospital Safety Grade in four consecutive grading terms (Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024).

Hospitals receiving the Improvement Award participated in the annual Leapfrog Group survey and demonstrated improvement in letter grades for four consecutive grading terms with Hospital Safety Grade (Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024). During the four terms, the grades must not trend backwards. The last term grade (Fall 2024) must be at least a “B” to qualify, and hospitals must improve by two letter grades during the four terms.

Ten hospitals earned the Excellence Award:

• Corewell Health Big Rapids Hospital
• Corewell Health Greenville Hospital
• Corewell Health Ludington Hospital
• Corewell Health Zeeland Hospital
• Garden City Hospital  
• Henry Ford Health West Bloomfield Hospital
• Lake Huron Medical Center, Port Huron
• Munson Healthcare Cadillac Hospital
• Trinity Health Livingston Hospital, Howell
• Trinty Health Grand Rapids

Three hospitals earned the Improvement Award:

• MyMichigan Medical Center Alma
• MyMichigan Medical Center Alpena
• MyMichigan Medical Center West Branch

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Patient Safety Awareness Week is an annual recognition event intended to encourage everyone to learn more about healthcare safety. Discover more information about patient safety and hospital safety grades at www.leapfroggroup.org.