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These are the Sacramento area’s best hospitals, 2026 report says. See the list

Ten Sacramento area hospitals have earned “A” ratings in the latest Leapfrog Group seasonal survey.

The nonprofit watchdog group grades U.S. hospitals twice a year, in the spring and fall, assigning “A” to “F” grades.

How many hospitals does Leapfrog grade?

Leapfrog grades nearly 3,000 hospitals across the country, the organization states on its website. The nonprofit said it considers factors such as rates of preventable errors, injuries and infections to help patients pick the best hospital near them for care.

Some of the collected data in its Hospital Safety Grades is voluntarily reported by hospitals to Leapfrog, and other data is collected from other sources such as from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

How did Sacramento-area hospitals rank?

Ten Sacramento hospitals received “A” grades:

Eight Sacramento-area hospitals received “B” grades. Two hospitals that had previously received “A” grades, Sacramento Mercy General Hospital and Kaiser Foundation Hospital - Roseville, received “B” graded. And Adventist Health Lodi Memorial received a “B” after previously receiving a “C” in spring 2025.

UC Davis Medical Center received a “C” grade. It was the only hospital in the Sacramento area with that grade.

“UC Davis Medical Center is proud to be consistently recognized as one of the best hospitals in America and ranked #1 in Sacramento by influential organizations and publications such as U.S. News and World Report.,” a UC Davis Health spokesperson said in response to the report.

“There are dozens of ranking reports compiled by third-party groups; we don’t always participate, as many of those surveys do not accurately capture the true quality of care,” the spokesperson said. “We believe the Leapfrog survey results are not reflective of all of our data, which shows our true quality and the work we do for patients.”

NorthBay VacaValley Hospital at 1000 Nut Tree Road in Vacaville was rated “grade not assigned.”

In keeping with a recent court ruling, Leapfrog said it has rated hospitals that did not take part in the survey as “grade not assigned.”

What to know about the Leapfrog court ruling

A judge on March 6 ordered Leapfrog to scrub poor grades for several South Florida hospitals from its reports, describing the scoring methodology as misleading and harmful for patients and “punitive” for medical centers that declined to participate in the voluntary surveys, The Miami Herald reported.

“​This ruling validates what hospitals across the country have experienced firsthand: Leapfrog is an organization built on deceptive and unfair practices that harms the very same patients it claims to serve. We brought this lawsuit because patients deserve transparency,” Maggie Gill, eastern group president of the Palm Beach Health Network, which includes the hospitals named in the suit, said in a statement.

Leah Binder, Leapfrog Group’s president and CEO, said the group would appeal the ruling, The Miami Herald reported.

“If this decision was allowed to stand, the implications would seriously undermine all published ratings and reviews in all industries, not just Leapfrog’s ratings of the safety of hospitals,” Binder said in a statement. “The decision gives businesses in Florida the right to sue ratings organizations if they feel harmed by a rating of their product. Ratings everywhere are potentially at risk now, from Amazon to Experian to Moody’s to Yelp.”

In 2025, the Leapfrog Group gave UC Davis Medical Center a “D,” The Sacramento Bee previously reported. The hospital said in response that it had not taken part in the survey.

It did participate in Leapfrog’s Spring 2026 Hospital Safety Grades survey. Leapfrog said.

McClatchy’s Michelle Marchante contributed to this story.

This story was originally published May 7, 2026 at 11:19 AM.

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Don Sweeney
The Sacramento Bee
Don Sweeney has been a newspaper reporter and editor in California for more than 35 years. He is a service reporter based at The Sacramento Bee.
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