Here in Southeast Minnesota, we're pretty well known for our vast medical community. Rochester is often referred to as The Med City, after all! And even though you can receive world-class medical treatment around these parts, going to any hospital still carries a little bit of risk.

The nonprofit group Leapfrog just came out with new grades for hospital safety based on things like avoidable medical errors, accidents, injuries, and infections from "A" to "F." So how did our hospitals in Southeast Minnesota perform? Let's take a look:

"A" Rating
No hospital in Southeast Minnesota received an 'A' for safety, which I found...pretty surprising.

"B" Rating

Mayo Clinic Health System - Albert Lea and Austin

Mayo Clinic Health System In Red Wing

"C" Rating

Mayo Clinic Health System - Mankato Hospital

Mayo Clinic Hospital - Methodist Campus, Rochester

Mayo Clinic Hospital - Saint Mary's Campus, Rochester

Winona Health, Winona

"D" & "F" Ratings

No D's or F's for us! Woohoo!

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Here's the somewhat unsettling part; patients who seek treatment hospitals that received a "B" grade will have a 35% greater risk of avoidable death compared to "A" hospitals. With "C" hospitals, it's an 88% greater risk. Yikes. Just a third of all nationwide hospitals surveyed received an "A" rating. I'm starting to think we can all do a little bit better.

So why was Rochester not able to perform above a "C" grade? While we were rated above average in terms of our medical staff, patient communication, and not getting dangerous bed sores, we were below average when it came to categories like "Dangerous object left in patient's body," "safe medication administration," and "accidental cuts and tears." Maybe it's just me, but those things seem, um, pretty important.

For a detailed look at how each hospital was graded, head here.

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