Judge orders hospital rating group to remove grades of these hospitals

A federal judge ordered Leapfrog Group to take down grades of 5 South Florida hospitals. The judge said a scoring change had 'no scientific basis.'

An independent hospital rating organization has taken down grades of a South Florida health system after a judge ruled the group unfairly scored hospitals in semiannual patient safety reports.

The U.S. District Court judge's order came after Palm Beach Health Network sued Leapfrog Group, claiming the patient safety organization targeted hospitals that refused to participate in Leapfrog's twice-a-year report cards.

U.S. District Court Judge Donald Middlebrooks agreed with the hospitals, ruling that Leapfrog's change in how it scored some hospitals had "no scientific basis, unfairly penalizes non-participating hospitals and misrepresents hospital safety."

Leapfrog Group complied with a judge's order to remove scores of the five hospitals by March 13. Those hospitals are Good Samaritan Medical Center, Delray Medical Center, Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center, St. Mary’s Medical Center and West Boca Medical Center.

Leapfrog is one of several sources for patients to check safety scores of their local hospitals. U.S. News & World Report lists ratings and other information on hospitals and doctors. Other consumer sites such as Healthgrades and Yelp collect feedback from patients.