Florida
Judge orders hospital rating group to remove grades of these hospitals
Virginia health official discusses hospital accountability limits
The Virginia Department of Health faces significant challenges in holding hospitals accountable for patient health and safety, as explained by the state’s top health official.
Scripps News Morning Rush
An independent hospital rating organization has taken down grades of a South Florida health system after a judge ruled the group unfairly scored hospitals in semiannual patient safety reports.
The U.S. District Court judge’s order came after Palm Beach Health Network sued Leapfrog Group, claiming the patient safety organization targeted hospitals that refused to participate in Leapfrog’s twice-a-year report cards.
U.S. District Court Judge Donald Middlebrooks agreed with the hospitals, ruling that Leapfrog’s change in how it scored some hospitals had “no scientific basis, unfairly penalizes non-participating hospitals and misrepresents hospital safety.”
Leapfrog Group complied with a judge’s order to remove scores of the five hospitals by March 13. Those hospitals are Good Samaritan Medical Center, Delray Medical Center, Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center, St. Mary’s Medical Center and West Boca Medical Center.
Leapfrog is one of several sources for patients to check safety scores of their local hospitals. U.S. News & World Report lists ratings and other information on hospitals and doctors. Other consumer sites such as Healthgrades and Yelp collect feedback from patients.
Lisa McGiffert, a patient safety advocate and past director of Consumers Union Safe Patient Project, worried about how the ruling might affect other patient rating groups.
“It could have a chilling effect on any number of entities that are trying to do some kind of rating,” McGiffert said.
Hospitals cite damage from poor ratings
The five Palm Beach Health Network hospitals applauded the judge’s March 6 decision, which followed a trial earlier this year.
In an interview with USA TODAY, Delray Medical Center CEO Heather Havericak said Leapfrog’s grades harmed her hospital’s reputation as well as the other Palm Beach hospitals. The five Palm Beach hospitals are owned by Tenet Healthcare.
“Those grades have been very damaging to our hospital and our Palm Beach Health Network,” said Havericak.
Leah Binder, CEO of Leapfrog Group, said the judge’s order was “outrageous” and one her organization plans to appeal.
“This is just terrible for consumers,” Binder said. “Consumers deserve to know what we know, based on expert opinion, about the safety of the hospitals they entrust their lives to.”
What did the hospitals contest?
Leapfrog assigns letter grades to hospitals in the spring and fall each year after evaluating 22 categories of public and private data. The public data is from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The private safety and quality data is collected via voluntary surveys sent to hospitals.
The lawsuit focused on Leapfrog’s 2024 change in evaluating missing survey data from four safety and quality measures.
In the Spring 2024 survey, Leapfrog used averages from similar hospitals when calculating scores for hospitals that didn’t provide survey data. By Fall 2024, Leapfrog changed such scores to “limited achievement,” which effectively depressed overall scores of hospitals that didn’t complete the surveys, according to the judge’s order.
The five Palm Beach hospitals stopped participating in the Leapfrog survey during the COVID-19 pandemic to allocate limited resources elsewhere.
Following the Fall 2024 change in how Leapfrog scored missing categories of survey data, the five Palm Beach hospitals all received lower grades of Ds and Fs. Delray’s grade dropped from a D to an F following the scoring change.
During the trial, Havericak testified that walk-in visitors to her hospital’s emergency room dropped 7% to 8% since 2024. During the same period, patients transported via emergency medical crews increased.
“When we have these misleading rates for data that we didn’t even submit, confidence is going to be shaken for our community,” Havericak said. “We saw various patients that wanted to seek treatment at other places as a result of seeing these misleading safety grades.”
Binder said Leapfrog won’t grade roughly 300 non-participating hospitals when it releases its Spring 2026 report card. Those hospitals − including the five Palm Beach hospitals − will be scored using a new methodology by Fall 2026 Binder said.
What does this mean for consumers?
McGiffert, the patient safety advocate, urged consumers to check multiple sources when evaluating a hospital or other health system.
CMS, which oversees Medicare and Medicaid, offers a searchable database with detailed quality scores for more than 4,000 Medicare-certified hospitals. CMS assigns an “overall rating” to a hospital of up to five stars.
West Boca Medical Center received an overall rating of two stars on CMS’s five-star scale. CMS graded the other four Palm Beach hospitals each at one star overall. A Palm Beach Hospital Network spokesman declined to discuss the CMS ratings.
Unlike Leapfrog, CMS doesn’t widely promote its scores, so the public might not even be aware of the information, McGiffert said.
McGiffert said consumers who can choose which hospital or health facility to visit should do their homework and not rely on any single rating. She said people should talk to other patients, search for lawsuits or talk to their medical provider about things like nurse staffing levels and infection control.
“When it comes to health care, people are still pretty trusting,” McGiffert said. “You just really need to do your homework. If somebody says, ‘We’re an A rated hospital.’ What exactly does that mean?”
Isa Torres, Lonni Alameda talk about beating UF in playoff-like atmosphere
Isa Torres led FSU softball with a two-home run performance. She embraced the playoff-like atmosphere in 3-1 win over Florida. Lonni Alameda talks about the victory.
No. 8 Florida handed No. 10 Florida State a narrow midweek loss, edging the Seminoles 4-3 Tuesday night at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium.
It was FSU’s first loss at Gainesville in five years.
FSU (43-8, 18-3 ACC) matched UF hit for hit for much of the game but could not overcome a pair of early deficit swings, falling to the Gators (46-8, 16-5 SEC) for the second time this season.
The Seminoles scored three runs on seven hits and drew three walks. Ashtyn Danley and Kennedy Harp each went 2-for-3, and five different FSU players recorded hits.
FSU struck first in the second inning. Singles by Bella Ruggiero and Harp, along with a walk to Shelby McKenzie, loaded the bases. Hayley Griggs followed with a soft single to left to plate Ruggiero, and Isa Torres added a sacrifice fly to score McKenzie and give the Seminoles a 2-0 lead.
Florida answered with two runs on two hits in the bottom of the third to tie the game, then pushed ahead 3-2 in the fourth on an RBI single.
The Seminoles responded in the fifth, again loading the bases. Anna Hinde lifted a sacrifice fly to deep right, allowing Torres to tag and score to tie the game at 3.
Florida regained the lead in the bottom half of the inning with a solo run and held the Seminoles scoreless the rest of the way to secure the 4-3 victory.
Bella Dimitrijevic started for FSU and worked three innings, allowing two earned runs on three hits with one strikeout in her 13th start of the season. Marlee Gaskell (2-1) relieved in the fourth, pitching 2 1/3 innings and striking out three while surrendering five hits. Makenna Reid entered in the sixth and recorded two flyouts to keep the Seminoles within a run.
Florida State will resume ACC play with a road series at Boston College beginning Friday, May 1, in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.
How to watch FSU softball vs. Boston College
- Date: Friday, May 1
- Time: 4 p.m. EST
- Where: Harrington Athletics Village, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
- TV/Stream: ACC extra
Peter Holland Jr. covers Florida State athletics and Big Bend Preps for the Tallahassee Democrat. If you like to pitch a story on a high school athlete, don’t hesitate to get in touch with him via email at PHolland@Gannett.com or on X @_Da_pistol.
Florida
FBI asking for help locating missing truck driver after suspected car hauler hijacking in Florida
BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – The FBI is investigating the suspicious disappearance of truck driver Alejandro Jacomino Gonzalez and is asking for the public’s assistance in locating him.
On April 16, investigators say Gonzalez picked up multiple vehicles from the Port of Brunswick, in Georgia. He departed the Brunswick port headed South for Miami, Florida, the drop off location for the vehicles.
Timeline of disappearance
At approximately 1:21 a.m., the FBI says Gonzalez arrived at a truck stop in Brevard County, Florida, where he rested for several hours. At 7:49 a.m., GPS from the truck driven by Gonzalez indicates the truck drove South one exit and then turned North towards Jacksonville. Soon after, Gonzalez became unreachable and the truck was reported missing.
On April 17, the truck was located in Port Wentworth, Georgia, however Gonzalez was not located in the truck. Additionally, several vehicles were missing from the hauler. Since the discovery of the truck, three vehicles have been located in Florida. Others are still missing, along with Gonzalez.
The FBI is seeking photos and video footage from any people located in or around the Brevard County Rest Area in Grant-Valkaria, Florida, between the hours of 1 a.m. and 8 a.m., on Friday, April 17, specifically focusing on the southern portion of the rest area near the ramp that enters back onto I-95 South.
The public is encouraged to share those photos and videos here.
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.
Wildlife researchers have found an unconventional way to help control invasive Burmese pythons in the Florida Everglades – by using one of the snakes’ favorite prey.
Opossums are a key food source for Burmese pythons, which are top predators in the Everglades and have established a permanent breeding population in South Florida, severely harming the ecosystem by wiping out native animals, according to the Conservancy of Southwest Florida.
In 2022, researchers discovered the new technique accidentally while studying the movements and behaviors of small mammals. The team had fitted GPS collars to opossums and raccoons on Florida’s southern coast and discovered an added side effect: They could also track the enormous snakes after they swallowed the tagged animals whole, LiveScience reported.
“We need everything that we can find to remove as many pythons as possible,” Michael Cove, one of the researchers and curator of mammals at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, told The South Florida Sun-Sentinel in 2023.
With that in mind, Cove, A.J. Sanjar and other researchers expanded the effort to track and euthanize invasive pythons as part of Florida’s conservation work. Here’s how they do it.
How the GPS-collared opossums are tracked
Researchers hope to have at least 40 GPS-collared opossums in their conservation program by later this summer. It’s almost a given that some of these furry creatures will meet their doom in the coils of an invasive python diet in the food chain, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported.
Although the use of live prey as bait has drawn criticism, the scientists insist that they are researching natural behavior and that the collars do not limit the mammals’ range or raise their risk, but rather use predatory patterns as a means of detection.
“We’re not putting these animals out there and in harm’s way,” Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge manager Jeremy Dixon told the South Florida Sun Sentinel on April 19. “Harm’s way is there. We’re just documenting what’s happening.”
Where Burmese pythons have been reported in Florida
Burmese pythons in the Sunshine State have reduced the population of raccoons by 99%, opossums by 98% and bobcats by 88%, causing a massive ecological collapse in Florida’s Everglades.
A U.S. Geological Survey report shows that Burmese pythons are expanding their range so quickly that it can be marked in miles per year in some areas.
Here’s where they’re most prevalent in Florida:
About the invasive Burmese python
Originally from Southeast Asia, the Burmese python has been introduced to South Florida either through accidental escape or intentional release of captive animals.
In 1979, the first observation of a Burmese python in the wild in South Florida was recorded in Everglades National Park. The heaviest python ever caught in Florida was an 18-foot, 215-pound snake. It was caught by a biologist with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida in Naples in 2022.
How big do pythons get?
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission keeps track of the length and weight of Burmese pythons after sightings are reported. The longest Burmese python ever captured in Florida, in July 2023, measured more than 19 feet.
Since their arrival in Florida, the snakes have brought harmful, non-native parasites and reduced medium-sized mammal numbers by more than 90%, changing the ecosystem, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Source: North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, South Florida Sun Sentinel, Popular Science, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Naples Daily News and USA TODAY research
-
Alaska2 minutes agoAlaska, Southwest launch new nonstops out of San Diego International Airport
-
Arizona8 minutes agoGas, airline prices remain high in Arizona as Iran War reaches 2-month mark
-
Arkansas14 minutes agoSociety for Simulation in Healthcare grants full accreditation to UCA’s Nabholz center
-
California20 minutes agoCalifornia Will Soon Have More Than 300 Data Centers. Where Will They Get Their Water? – Inside Climate News
-
Colorado26 minutes ago‘It really tore me up’: Funeral home probation leaves southern Colorado woman questioning care of her father’s remains
-
Connecticut32 minutes agoOpinion: YIGBY could be Connecticut’s solution to health and housing crisis
-
Delaware38 minutes agoFBI offers reward in search for missing Delaware County man
-
Florida44 minutes agoNo. 10 Florida State softball comes up short on the road at Florida