Sarasota Memorial Hospital (SMH) continues to lead the region in quality and safety, earning a 5-star rating for overall quality from the federal government in April and an “A” for patient safety in The Leapfrog Group’s hospital report cards released today. SMH-Sarasota is the only hospital in Florida to repeatedly earn the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) highest 5-star quality award since the federal government launched the rating system in 2016. The overall rating system, which ranges between 1 and 5 stars, assesses hospital performance on a variety of quality measures into a single rating. SMH-Sarasota is part of a prestigious list of hospitals to earn a 5-star rating as approximately 8% of 5,000-plus hospitals reviewed across the nation received 5 stars in the CMS ratings in this year’s assessment. In a separate quality review released by The Leapfrog Group today, SMH also maintained its straight-A safety streak. It has earned consecutive A’s in every grading cycle since it began participating in Leapfrog’s safety survey in 2016. The organization, which focuses exclusively on hospitals’ prevention of medical errors and other harms to patients in their care, releases hospital report cards in the spring and fall of each year to help patients choose the safest hospitals to seek care. Of the nearly 3,000 hospitals graded this spring, 29% received an “A” grade. Hospitals that have been open less than two years, including SMH-Venice, are not yet eligible for review or a star rating.