Saint Francis Hospital-Bartlett has been honored with an "A" Hospital Safety Grade by The Leapfrog Group, an organization that hopes to improve health care quality and safety for consumers.

Saint Francis Hospital-Bartlett officials said their facility was the only one in Shelby County to receive the "A" Hospital Safety Grade. It is the ninth consecutive "A" grade for Saint Francis Hospital-Bartlett.

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade assigns letter grades to hospitals nationwide based on their performance in preventing medical errors and infections. The grade is designed to provide consumers with information they might want when making decisions about a hospital stay.

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is calculated by using 27 measures of publicly available hospital safety data. Approximately 2,500 hospitals have been assigned scores, with less than a third receiving an "A" grade.