PORTLAND — Maine Medical Center (MMC) and Southern Maine Health Care (SMHC) each have been named a 2022 Top Teaching Hospital by The Leapfrog Group. This national award is widely acknowledged as one of the most competitive awards American hospitals can receive for health care quality and safety, according to MaineHealth, in a news release. The news also comes just weeks after Money.com, in partnership with Leapfrog, named both hospitals to its list of Best Hospitals in America for Billing Ethics.

“Our care teams at Maine Medical Center and Southern Maine Health Care put safety and quality first, and we are honored to see Leapfrog recognize their efforts,” said MaineHealth Southern Region President Jeff Sanders. “These past few years have been a real challenge, but our teams are continuously looking for ways to improve care for our patients.”

Over 2,200 hospitals were considered for Leapfrog’s four categories of Top Hospital: Children’s, General, Rural and Teaching. A total of 115 top hospitals were selected as Top Hospitals, 58 of them in the Top Teaching category. The quality of patient care across many areas of hospital performance is considered in establishing the qualifications for the Top Hospitals awards, including infection rates, practices for safer surgery, maternity care, and the hospital’s capacity to prevent medication errors.

To qualify for the Top Hospitals distinction, a hospital must rank top among peers on the Leapfrog Hospital Survey, which assesses hospital performance on the highest standards for quality and patient safety, and achieve top performance in its category.

“We are honored to recognize Maine Medical Center and Southern Maine Health Care as Top Hospitals this year,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “MMC and SMHC have demonstrated that they truly put patients first. We congratulate the board, staff and clinicians whose efforts made this honor possible.”

To determine Best Hospitals for Billing Ethics, Money.com used data submitted in the annual Leapfrog Hospital Survey. In addition to earning an A or B grade in the group’s hospital safety assessment, hospitals had to show patient-centered billing practices. Only 565 of more than 2,000 hospitals participating in the survey earned the Ethical Billing Practices Recognition.

“Patients should always be able to feel confident in the quality of the care they receive and that the hospital’s bills are clear and understandable, with options if they have difficulty paying for services,” said SMHC President Nate Howell. “These independent recognitions reflect the commitment to safe, patient-centered care that our care teams bring to work every day.”

Top Hospitals will be honored tonight at the 2022 Leapfrog Annual Meeting and Awards Dinner in Washington, D.C. To see the full list of institutions honored as 2022 Top Hospitals, visit www.leapfroggroup.org/tophospitals.

About Maine Medical Center

Maine Medical Center (MMC), recognized as a Best Regional Hospital by U.S. News and World Report for 2022-2023, is a complete health care resource for the people of Greater Portland and the entire state, as well as northern New England. Incorporated in 1868, MMC is the state’s largest medical center, licensed for 700 beds and employing more than 9,600 people. MMC's unique role as both a community hospital and a referral center requires an unparalleled depth and breadth of services, including an active educational program and a world-class biomedical research center. As a nonprofit institution, Maine Medical Center provides nearly 23 percent of all the charity care delivered in Maine. MMC is part of the MaineHealth system, a growing family of health care services in northern New England. For more information, visit www.mmc.org.

About Southern Maine Health Care

Southern Maine Health Care (SMHC) is a national award-winning healthcare system with a non-profit mission “to improve the health and health care of the communities we serve.”  SMHC includes a full service, acute care medical center in Biddeford, with York County’s only inpatient mental health unit. Emergency care, surgical services, and diagnostic and therapy services are available at SMHC’s Medical Centers in Biddeford and Sanford. SMHC offers primary care and multi-specialty physician services, diagnostic and therapy services, and Walk-In Care centers in various York County communities including Biddeford, Kennebunk, Saco, Sanford and Waterboro. SMHC is Joint Commission accredited and has been recognized for quality excellence by numerous outside organizations. To learn more about SMHC and SMHC providers, visit www.smhc.org, https://www.youtube.com/c/smhcorgme, or https://twitter.com/SMHCHealth.