Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital and Orlando Health Sebastian River Hospital both maintained their B’s in the Fall 2025 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades, which take into account patient surveys going back to 2024, plus some historic safety data collected by Medicare and Medicaid.
The nearest A hospitals to Vero are HCA Florida St. Lucie to the south and Orlando Health Melbourne Hospital to the north. The area’s nearest Level One Trauma Centers where crash victims are often sent, HCA Florida Lawnwood and Holmes Regional Medical Center, both scored a B in the fall grades.
Twice a year in the spring and fall, the Leapfrog Group grades more than 3,000 hospitals nationwide on an A to F scale using government-collected safety data, voluntary reporting by hospitals and patient survey responses.
Cleveland Clinic Florida’s headquarters in Weston, often referred to as the “mother ship” because of the top-down leadership headquartered in Broward County, earned an A grade this time, after falling from a B to a C from Spring to Fall 2024, then bouncing back to a B this past spring.
Orlando Health’s headquarters, Orlando Regional Medical Center, which slipped from an A to a B in the spring, received another B in the fall grades.
One of the lowest ranked areas for Cleveland Clinic’s Vero hospital on the patient survey portion has nothing to do with safety. The hospital scored only one out of four possible points for “billing ethics” as patients continue to complain about facility fees tacked on to their bills that are not covered by insurance.
Vero’s hospital was awarded the maximum points for the safety of its critical care and maternity units, and scored well for preventing most types of post-surgical infections.
Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital Vice President and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Richard Rothman said, “Regardless of rankings, we continue to focus on what matters most, striving to provide the highest quality, safest patient-centered care; supporting research and clinical innovation to benefit the people we serve.”
Referring to a different set of data not publicly available, Rothman said, “Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital currently ranks in the 80th percentile nationally for Vizient’s safety, quality and experience composite score. These gains reflect the dedication of our caregivers and the effectiveness of our safety and quality initiatives.”
Cleveland Clinic Florida officials have criticized the methodology of the 20-plus year Leapfrog grades, saying they do not accurately represent their hospitals’ true performance and include too much historical data.
One year ago, Cleveland’s chief safety compliance officer in Florida Dr. Sonya Pease told the Indian River County Hospital District trustees they should instead examine safety scores tabulated by a company called Vizient, which Cleveland Clinic often verbally cites.
Those statistics are not available to the public, as Vizient is a private member service. Members across the country contribute their data and Vizient compiles it and ranks the hospitals, but members are not allowed to publish the data.
After Vero Beach 32963 requested the data cited by Dr. Pease, Cleveland Clinic requested special permission to release certain Vizient data. One year later, no data has been released.
