Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade — the most complete picture of patient safety in the U.S. — has awarded Beaufort Memorial an “A” in its spring 2017 report card.&nbsp;

The nonprofit hospital was one of only six medical centers of the 20 in the region to earn the top grade.

“To achieve an&nbsp; ‘A’ requires a hospital-wide commitment to safety, involving everyone from our housekeeping and food services staffs to the nurses, doctors and technicians on our medical team,” BMH President and CEO Russell Baxley said. “We continue to work hard every day to maintain our ’A’ grade and provide our patients with the highest standards of care.”

Developed under the guidance of an expert panel, Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses 30 measures of hospital safety data to assign A, B, C, D and F grades to more than 2,600 hospitals twice a year.&nbsp;

Hospitals are graded based on how they scored in five major categories: infections, problems with surgery, practices to prevent errors, safety problems, and doctors, nurses and hospital staff.

In the category of infections, BMH scored as well as the best hospitals in the country in four of the five areas surveyed, including MRSA infections, infections in the blood and urinary tract during an ICU stay and surgical-site infections after colon surgery. It also received the top rating in five of the seven categories involving problems with surgery.

South Carolina came in at No. 17 among the 50 states, a ranking based on the number of hospitals that earned an “A” compared with the total number of hospitals that operate in the state. Of the 46 hospitals in South Carolina participating in the survey, 18 received the top grade.

More than 1,000 people a day are estimated to die from preventable hospital errors. &nbsp;

“When we launched Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade in 2012, our goal was to alert consumers to the hazards involved in a hospital stay and help them choose the safest option,” said Leapfrog President and CEO Leah Binder. “We also hoped to galvanize hospitals to make safety the first priority day in and day out.”

To view individual hospital grades and state rankings, go to www.hospitalsafetygrade.org.