These are the safest Boise-area hospitals in 2025. Did yours make the list?

The Boise area is home to three of the four safest hospitals in Idaho, according to The Leapfrog Group.

The nonprofit organization, which studies patient safety and protection, issues Hospital Safety Grades twice per year for nearly 3,000 hospitals across the nation. The Leapfrog Group’s latest report, released May 1, grades health care facilities on a scale of A to F — with A being the highest grade and F the lowest.

Grades are based on factors including rates of preventable errors, accidents, injuries and infections, as well as the systems hospitals have in place to prevent them.

“All hospitals should be proud to earn an ‘A,’ but they should not rest on that laurel,” Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, said in a statement. “Patient safety is a relentless, never-ending quest to put patients first.”

In Idaho, 14% of general hospitals received “A” grades, according to the report.

Here’s how Boise-area hospitals compared to those across the state:

What are the safest hospitals in Boise area and Idaho?

Four Idaho hospitals received “A” grades in patient safety from The Leapfrog Group in the spring of 2025 — including three in the Boise area.

These are the safest hospitals in Idaho, according to The Leapfrog Group report:

• St. Luke’s Boise Medical Center, 190 East Bannock St., Boise
• St. Luke’s Meridian Medical Center, 520 South Eagle Road, Meridian
• St. Joseph Regional Medical Center, 415 Sixth St., Lewiston
• West Valley Medical Center, 1717 East Arlington Ave., Caldwell

St. Luke’s Boise is the state’s largest medical care provider, the hospital said in a 2024 report.

St. Luke’s Boise Medical Center consistently received “A” grades since 2022, The Leapfrog Group said, receiving high marks for its efforts to prevent most infections.

Hospital staff scored well for communication and leadership, as well as preventing surgical issues and safety problems such as dangerous blood clots, falls from broken hips and dangerous objects being left in patients’ bodies, The Leapfrog Group found.

The Boise hospital performed below average in a few areas, including as preventing accidental cuts and tears and collapsed lungs when inserting and removing tubes from the chest area, according to The Leapfrog Group’s report.

St. Luke’s Meridian Medical Center received high marks for preventing kidney infections and breathing problems after surgery, according to The Leapfrog Group. The hospital scored above average for its leadership and communication among staff.

However, it received lower marks in some areas, including handwashing and preventing infection after colon surgery, The Leapfrog Group said.

The Meridian medical center has the busiest emergency department in Idaho, St. Luke’s said in its report.

Which local medical centers got ‘C’ grades for patient safety?

Five Idaho hospitals received “C” grades from The Leapfrog Group in spring 2025, the lowest grade given to medical centers in the state.

According to The Leapfrog Group, these Idaho hospitals scored the lowest for patient safety:

• Idaho Falls Community Hospital, 2327 Coronado St., Idaho Falls
• Madison Memorial Hospital, 450 East Main St., Rexburg
• Mountain View Hospital, 2325 Coronado St., Idaho Falls
• Portneuf Medical Center, 777 Hospital Way, Pocatello
• St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center - Boise, 1055 North Curtis Road, Boise

St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise received lower marks when it came to preventing issues with surgery.

The Boise hospital performed worse than average in preventing deaths from treatable surgical complications as well as stopping surgical wounds from splitting open, according to The Leapfrog Group.

“These largely preventable problems harm one in four hospital inpatients and cause as many as 250,000 deaths each year,” The Leapfrog Group said.

The hospital, however, received better-than-average scores for many of its error prevention and staff communication practices, the report found.

The Statesman reached out to St. Alphonsus for comment but had not received a response as of Tuesday afternoon.

How safe are other Idaho hospitals?

Five general hospitals in Idaho received “B” grades in The Leapfrog Group’s spring 2025 report, including two in Nampa.

Here’s which ones:

• Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center, 3100 Channing Way, Idaho Falls
• Kootenai Health, 2003 Kootenai Health Way, Coeur D’Alene
• St. Alphonsus Medical Center - Nampa, 4300 East Flamingo Ave., Nampa
• St. Luke’s Magic Valley Medical Center, 801 Pole Line Road West, Twin Falls
• St. Luke’s Nampa Medical Center, 9850 West St. Luke’s Drive, Nampa

How did The Leapfrog Group come up with safety grades?

According to The Leapfrog Group, a group of patient safety experts looked at nearly 3,000 general hospitals in the United States and used 30 different performance metrics to grade each hospital in spring 2025.

Each hospital’s overall score was based on factors such as patient feedback, the hospital’s environment and how patients receive care, as well as what happens to patients as they receive care.

Each hospital was then graded in five categories:

• Infections
• Problems with surgery 
• Safety problems 
• Practices to prevent errors 
• Doctors, nurses and hospital staff

Hospitals missing data were not graded.

“There’s still significant variation in safety across U.S. hospitals,” Binder said. “That’s why it’s so important for people to consult Safety Grades when making decisions about seeking care. All hospitals are not the same.”

This story was originally published August 21, 2025 at 5:00 AM.