These are the best hospitals in Charlotte, US News says. How safe are they?
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U.S. News and World Report identified six hospitals as Best Regional Hospitals in the Charlotte area.
Read more These are the best hospitals in Charlotte, US News says. How safe are they?
Best Regional Hospitals are general hospitals that have achieved at least eight high-performing ratings across the 23 measured procedures and conditions, as well as maternity care. More than 500 hospitals were recognized, including 20 in North Carolina.
Top hospitals are ranked 1 through 50 by specialty, and hospitals that aren’t in the top 50 but are above average in a specialty are labeled high performing. Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte is nationally ranked in two specialties: cardiology, heart and vascular surgery, and orthopedics.
Last year’s U.S. News rankings also highlighted Atrium Health for patient outcomes, experience and safety, among other performance measures and expert opinions, the Charlotte Observer previously reported. Atrium Health is the largest provider of hospitals in the Charlotte region.
Earlier this year, Atrium Health and WakeMed announced a merger agreement, projected to improve access and affordability across the state, accelerate growth and jobs in Wake County and transform mental healthcare.
But how does this ranking compare to scores from Leapfrog, a watchdog organization that grades hospitals on safety?
Leapfrog’s Hospital Safety Grades are assigned twice a year, in the spring and fall. The Hospital Safety Grade program was established in 2012.
Grades are assigned using letters, with A as the best grade and F as the worst. The grades are assigned using data from various public sources, including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Here are the spring 2026 Leapfrog scores for the top six hospitals in the Charlotte region, according to the U.S. News and World Report:
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Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center was labeled a “Straight A” hospital, meaning it received an A ranking in at least three seasons of Leapfrog scores.
Four hospitals received an A grade this spring:
One hospital on U.S. News’ list received a B grade: Atrium Health-Pineville. The hospital scored below average in harmful events, dangerous bed sores and communications about medicine and discharge, but it scored better than average on many practices to prevent errors, problems with surgery and doctors, nurses and hospital staff care.
Note: A Florida judge recently ordered Leapfrog to scrub poor patient safety grades for several Florida hospitals, The Miami Herald reported. The judge described the methodology as misleading and “punitive” for healthcare systems that choose not to participate.
U.S. News and World Report uses data from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, professional organizations, medical specialists and other sources to construct the rankings. Methodology has been tweaked over the years since the organization first started ranking hospitals in 1990.
U.S. News and World Report offers a search tool to seek out hospital rankings in your area. Prospective patients can also compare up to five hospitals side by side to see how they measure up.
In a video explaining how to use the hospital safety grades, Leapfrog recommends using them to inform your decision when researching hospitals near you. Leapfrog offers a search tool on the homepage at hospitalsafetygrade.org. Hospitals are searchable by hospital name, city and state, just state or ZIP code.
Portions of this story were previously published in the Charlotte Observer.
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