Rhode Island
Most, but not all, Rhode Island hospitals get good report cards from national ranking group • Rhode Island Current
Four Rhode Island hospitals — Newport, Miriam, South County and Westerly — received top marks in the fall report from Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit that grades hospitals on safety.
The Washington, D.C.-based Leapfrog assigns hospitals letter grades based on data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as well as Leapfrog’s own surveys. Rhode Island’s hospitals didn’t perform much differently than they did in spring 2024 (The Miriam and Newport have consistently earned A’s the past two years), with two notable exceptions. Westerly’s A is its first since 2022. Landmark Medical Center in Woonsocket, which has received nine consecutive A grades, dropped to a B.
Kent Hospital and Rhode Island Hospital also received B grades. The embattled Our Lady of Fatima Hospital and Roger Williams Medical Center both earned C grades.
Rhode Island’s hospitals collectively ranked seventh nationwide.
South County Hospital’s good report card was a boon to Dr. Kevin Charpentier, the vice president and chief medical officer at South County Health, the hospital’s parent company.
“It’s more than a score — it’s a promise to our community of prioritizing the highest level of patient care,” Charpentier wrote in an email.
The score was also a bit of good news amid an ongoing dispute between the hospital’s administration and its staff. A September letter sent by doctors and nurses to the South County Health’s board of trustees detailed escalating tensions between providers and management, with doctor resignations, service cuts and growing patient backlogs among the signatories’ concerns.
Landmark’s B left its CEO Mike Souza disappointed.
“We take quality very seriously and our team has already put plans in place to address the areas needing improvement,” Souza said in an emailed response to Rhode Island Current. “Our community will continue to receive great care and our expectation is that we will return to an ‘A’ grade in the near future.”
Leapfrog aggregates 30 metrics to assess how well hospitals care for patients as well as prevent bad outcomes, like infections and falls. The grades are given to roughly 3,000 hospitals, not including VA hospitals or children’s hospitals. Hospitals that lack enough data for multiple metrics are also excluded.
Lisa P. Tomasso, senior vice president of the Hospital Association of Rhode Island, said via email that the trade group was pleased with the state’s performance. But she added that the grades, while insightful, are “not comprehensive, as they exclude factors like social determinants of health, community-level health challenges, and systemic issues like Medicaid reimbursement rates.”
But grades still hold value. Robert Hackey, a professor of health sciences at Providence College, said that “hospitals that don’t do well tend to poke holes in whatever rating methodology that’s used.”
“If you look at the hospitals in Rhode Island, for the most part, we’re performing very well,” Hackey said. “Yeah, we obviously have two low performers. It’s Fatima and Roger Williams. And there’s a common thread there. They’re both owned by Prospect and they’re both for-profit institutions, yeah. And they both struggle.”
A representative for CharterCARE Health Partners, the Rhode Island subsidiary for Prospect Medical Holdings, which owns Roger Williams Medical Center and Our Lady of Fatima Hospital, did not respond to requests for comment. Facing growing debt, Prospect has sought to unload many of the hospitals in its portfolio, including the two safety net hospitals in Rhode Island. A proposal to sell Roger Williams and Fatima to a new, nonprofit owner, received conditional approval from state regulators in June, but the status of financing required to complete the transaction is unclear.
Hackey said it’s a bad sign when hospitals ignore questions on Leapfrog’s survey — something both Fatima and Roger Williams Medical Center did when it came to inquiries about nursing and leadership.
Meanwhile hospitals owned by the state’s largest health care system — Brown University Health, formerly Lifespan Corporation — all performed well. Rhode Island Hospital, the state’s flagship hospital, received a B grade despite demonstrating below-average prevention rates of blood and urinary tract infections and falls causing broken hips, as well as less-than-stellar marks for hospital leadership and communication about medicines with patients.
Since 2021, Rhode Island Hospital has received C grades more often than not. The B is evidence that things are improving, said Dr. Dean Roye, senior vice president for medical affairs and chief medical officer at the hospital. The Leapfrog grades “help us pinpoint areas” to work on, Roye said. He added that a reorganization of quality and safety departments across Brown Health’s properties was another factor in Rhode Island Hospital’s improved grade.
But Hackey is eyeing another Brown property, the A-graded Miriam, for a surgery he has scheduled for December. He explained with a laugh that checking the Leapfrog ratings was one of the first things he did when deciding where to have his surgery.
“The goal of this is to have a more educated healthcare consumer,” he said.
Above average results
Leapfrog uses the percentage of A grade hospitals in a state to determine a state’s national ranking. Almost 61% of Utah’s hospitals received A grades, giving it the top slot nationwide. The top 10 states all sported at least 40% A grade hospitals.
An A grade indicates hospitals that prioritize safety, said Alex Campione, program analyst for the Leapfrog Group, who noted that about 32% of hospitals nationwide achieved this grade. Rhode Island was over the national average with 44% of its hospitals receiving an A grade.
“Each year more than 250,000 people will die in hospitals due to preventable errors, injuries, accidents, and infections,” Campione said. “We estimate that, at the very least, 50,000 of those lives could be saved if all hospitals performed like A hospitals.”
Rhode Island placed fourth nationwide in Leapfrog’s spring 2024 scores, also with 44% at an A grade, but it was pushed out of the top five this time around by three states that rose with higher grades: California, North Carolina and Connecticut. Connecticut was the only other New England state to crack the top 10. Vermont fared worst of all, and was ranked 48th nationwide, tying for last place with North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa. There was not a single A grade hospital in any of these states.
Grading the graders
But a bad report card might not be the final word on a hospital’s quality. A 2019 article in New England Journal of Medicine Catalyst graded the graders, and gave Leapfrog a C-, the second lowest of the four systems reviewed. The study noted that Leapfrog had a detailed framework for measurement, with a unique focus on the hospitals’ “culture of safety.” But it also relied on its proprietary survey for a good chunk of its data — a problem, the authors thought, since Leapfrog grades hospitals the same regardless of whether they complete the survey.
Dr. Karl Bilimoria of the Indiana University School of Medicine, who chairs the school’s surgery department and leads its Surgical Outcomes and Quality Improvement Center, led the 2019 study. He wrote in an email Tuesday to Rhode Island Current that Leapfrog’s efforts still leave something to be desired.
“Leapfrog has many issues with their methodology and their general approach that persist and they have been the least receptive to improvement suggestions and the least adaptive to changes in the science of quality measurement,” Bilimoria wrote.
Asked about Bilimoria’s idea that Leapfrog is not responsive to suggestions, spokesperson Lula Hailesilassie said by email that the public is regularly invited to submit feedback on proposed changes to its surveys. Comments on the 2025 survey are open through Dec. 13, 2024.
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Newest clergy sex abuse lawsuit bill gives victims ‘hope,’ Neronha says
A new bill gives clergy sex abuse victims a path to sue the institutions that may have been responsible for their abuse as children.
PROVIDENCE – Victims of clergy sex abuse scored a long-sought victory in the Rhode Island Senate on Wednesday, June 3.
Legislation to allow the victims to sue the Catholic Church – and any other institution that failed to protect them from molestation when they were children – won unanimous Senate approval and now goes to the House for final votes.
The fast action from Senate Judiciary Committee approval – to a full Senate vote – within an hour and a half was not unexpected after the announcement on Monday of a compromise backed by the Senate’s top-tier Democrats, including Senate President Valarie Lawson, Majority Leader Frank Ciccone and Senate Judiciary Chairman Matthew LaMountain.
If passed, as now appears likely, the legislation will allow the victims of sexual abuse by clergy to sue the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence and any other entity that knew, but failed to stop – or concealed – the abuse they suffered as children at the hands of trusted elders.
The legislation would also provide the long-ago victims – many of them now in their 60s and 70s – with a two-year window to revive claims currently barred by expired time limits.
The compromise – after years of pleas and inaction – follows the long-awaited release on March 4 of Attorney General Peter Neronha’s report detailing the systematic cover-up by the Catholic Church of the sexual abuse of more than 300 Rhode Island children.
His report laid bare, for the first time, the scope of more than a half century of alleged child sexual abuse by Rhode Island Catholic clergy and the breadth and depth of the alleged cover-up, which often included destroying key files or shuffling priests from parish to parish, where they would reoffend.
Sen. Mark McKenney, the lead Senate sponsor, told colleagues that the proposed new law not only states “this conduct unacceptable, but from now on, the institutions that have enabled it will be held accountable as well.”
As to whether the law would survive a legal challenge, McKenney said the Rhode Island Constitution “contains a provision that is somewhat unique in the United States: a victims’ rights clause. That provision has been largely overlooked in the debate that’s gone on about the constitutionality of this and … previous versions of this bill,” but retired U.S. District Judge William Smith drew attention to it when he testified.
He said Article 1, Section 23 “of our constitution provides that crime victims, including child sexual abuse victims, not only may receive compensation from perpetrators, but also, and this is a quote from the constitution, ‘Shall receive such other compensation as the state may provide,’ with that power ‘entirely committed to our authority as the General Assembly.’”
Co-sponsor Dawn Euer applauded “the victims and survivors, both the ones that we know of and the ones that we don’t, as well as the ones that we have lost. The strength and courage that it takes to go through what [these] people have gone through … is incredible.
“And then to be able to come up here and advocate …. for passage of this legislation over years [of] legislative turmoil and back again, it’s really incredible the strength and determination that you all have shown,” she said to the group of survivor-advocates in the Senate gallery.
“We get used to it,” she said of the process by which “the proverbial sausage is made. But for issues like this that have real impacts on people’s lives, it can be an additional trauma,” she said of the year after year of public hearings and testimony, followed by inaction.
On Wednesday, she said, the Senate sent the “strong signal that Rhode Island stands with survivors and victims.”
This story has been updated with new information.
A rising tide of beach garbage plagues local wildlife. Fortunately, there’s something you can do about it.
A wide array of beach trash found on Napatree Point, from balloons and ribbons to Styrofoam, cellophane, nylon rope, bottle caps and a hypodermic needle. Waves break plastic into tiny particles that mix into beach sand and are ingested by marine life. Photography courtesy of Robert L. Mitchell
It’s easy to overlook the detritus along Rhode Island’s shoreline, but as the amount of beach litter has increased over the last few years, its effect on seabirds, seals, fish and other wildlife has risen dramatically.
Between 2011 and 2023, the Mystic Aquarium animal rescue program admitted fifty-eight seals into rehabilitation due to entanglements.
“Between 2024 and 2025, we have already passed that number, with fifty-nine entangled animals reported in just a year and a half,” says MaryEllen Mateleska, the aquarium’s senior director of education and conservation.
During an early summer walk at Watch Hill’s Napatree Point, much of the litter wasn’t noticeable at first because it had been ground down into little pieces along the high-tide mark. So it came as a surprise when my wife and I, after picking up everything we could find on a milelong stretch of sand, came away with a grocery bag full of trash. Most of it wasn’t whole bottles or cans, but micro trash — bits of things that had been pulverized by the surf.
Our haul included fifty-seven pieces of cellophane, twenty-five balloons (many with ribbons attached), twenty-four bottle caps, twenty-four pieces of nylon rope and netting fragments, twenty-four hard plastic fragments and ten cigarette butts (the plastic-based filters are not biodegradable). We also picked up fishing line, rubber lobster claw bands, tin foil, a shoe heel, one plastic bottle, one toothpaste tube and a syringe — all in the off-season.
“We are seeing more smaller plastic particles make their way to the beach,” says Mateleska.
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The litter accumulates from trash left on the shoreline, refuse that blows in from cars, bins and local roadways, and garbage that travels to the ocean by way of rivers. Waves then break down the plastics into smaller pieces of micro- and nanoplastics.
“Plastic pollution is incredibly dangerous to aquatic species,” she says. Fish and other animals ingest the microplastics and can become entangled in ribbons, nets and fishing lines. Other items that entangle wildlife include six-pack ring holders, hair ties, fishing line, netting or pieces of netting, fishing lures, hooks and plastic bags.
Sea birds are especially vulnerable because they use those bits of fishing line, rope, string and other materials to build their nests. Balloons, in particular, are deadly to seabirds, which often mistake them for jellyfish or other prey.
“Plastics are now in every ecosystem, almost every seabird, and almost every human body,” Mateleska says, with the long-term health impacts unknown.
They also take an extremely long time to break down, which is harmful to the state’s delicate coastal ecosystem.
“[Plastic] material that is in the environment may present itself on a shoreline very far away many years or decades later,” says Dave McLaughlin, sustainability coordinator at the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.
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What You Can Do
Beach walkers can help by picking up garbage wherever they go to enjoy the outdoors. But you don’t have to go to the beach to help. Better management of beach trash starts at home, Mataleska says.
“Refuse single-use plastics and look for sustainable alternatives, pick up trash wherever and whenever you see it, and support legislation that stops plastic at the source,” she advises.
Volunteer for coastal cleanups, use reusable materials, carry in and carry out your trash, recycle, and don’t litter. And consider joining a nonprofit group such as those sponsored by Coastodians (coastodians.org) or Save the Bay (savebay.org) that organize beach cleanups. When it comes to beach trash, even small groups can make a big difference.
Last out for Tiverton in a Division III softball win over Rogers
Last out for Tiverton in a Division III softball win over Rogers, a 14-9 triumph on June 2, 2026.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Coaches are reminded to send in game results each weeknight by emailing pjsports@providencejournal.com from 6 to 10 p.m.
🥍Games of the Day
La Salle will play Moses Brown for the 2026 RIIL Boys Lacrosse State Championship, like there was ever any doubt.
Tuesday was semifinal day for the two best boys lacrosse programs in Rhode Island and turned into their annual victory party. The top-seeded Rams didn’t play their cleanest lacrosse, but that didn’t stop them from taking No. 4 Hendricken apart with a 19-6 win.
Across the city, the second-seeded Quakers didn’t get off to a quick start, but took advantage of a man-up situation in the second to build a comfortable lead that turned full reclining chair in the second half in a 14-2 win over No. 3 Barrington.
La Salle handled Hendricken with ease during the regular season and the playoff match was more of the same. The Rams didn’t light the scoreboard on fire – at least not by their lofty expectations – but Dylan Fitzgerald’s FOGO dominance never gave the Hawks a chance to climb back into the game. La Salle improved in the second half and turned a 9-2 halftime lead into a 13-goal victory.
Lachlan Got led the Rams with five goals and Quincy Marino scored four. Tanner Poirier and Kian Parker both scored two goals and Nick Loo, Charlie Rodehorst, Thayer Got, Tyler Loo and Reid Kelley also had goals. Fitzgerald won 18 of 21 faceoffs and Connor Kelley made six saves before giving way to Sam Melanson, who made three to close things out.
Max Casten scored twice in the loss for Hendricken, with Richie Sousa, Will Kornacki, Karlton Lough and Dom Vacca getting the other scores.
Over on the east side, it took a little longer for Moses Brown to get cooking.
The Quakers struck first on a Christian Smith bounce shot 1:22 into the game, but the Eagles tied the game with a Peyton Hillier goal with 2:08 left in the quarter. MB quickly responded, with a goal by Reece Chace with 1:32 left to take a 2-1 lead into the second quarter.
Barrington picked up a stick penalty between quarters and Moses Brown took advantage of the man-up situation, getting a goal from Chace 1:12 into the second and then another score from John Cerce 30 seconds later. Chace added his third goal of the game with 6:59 left to play and Hugo Harrell popped one home with 5:11 left that gave MB a 6-1 lead it took into halftime.
The Quakers didn’t let up in the third quarter, outscoring the Eagles 3-0, before playing out the fourth.
Chace and Harrell led Moses Brown with four goals apiece. Cerce and Smith both scored twice and Ben Magiera and Matt Azevedo had the other tallies.
Hillier scored both goals for Barrington in the loss.
Nothing has been made official, but if tradition holds La Salle and Barrington would meet in the state title game on Saturday morning at Brown University.
🥍GIRLS LACROSSE – D-II semifinals
Westerly 21, Cranston West 3
The Bulldogs showed why they were the top seed in the D-II tournament, putting together an unstoppable performance in a 21-3 win over fourth-seeded Falcons.
Westerly has scored in bunches all season, but it picked a great time to have its best offensive performance of the season. The Bulldogs owned possession and finished what seemed like every time up the field, leaving Cranston West in their wake.
Eight different players scored for Westerly, led by six goals from Casey Macera. The Bulldogs got three apiece from Ella Seltzer, Gianna Falcone and Sienna Fizzano, while Phoebe Brennan and Jenna Parker scored two apiece. Macy Antoch and Sienna Mathieu added one goal each and Vittoria Illiano made five saves in the win.
Ashley Budano scored two goals to lead the Falcons and twin sister Zoe Budano had the other tally.
Westerly moves on to the Division II title game and will play No. 2 Cumberland.
Cumberland 12, Burrillville 6
The Clippers offense made a statement in the opening quarter and kept their foot on the gas, beating the Broncos, 12-6, to earn a spot in the Division II championship game.
When the teams met on May 8, No. 2 Cumberland had too much firepower for No. 3 Burrillville to contain. The trend continued in the rematch, as the Clippers poured on five goals in the first quarter before going up 8-2 at halftime. Up 10-3 late in the third, Cumberland played a man down but the Broncos couldn’t take advantage.
Lucy Biggs led the Clippers with five goals and Brooke Tellier and Leanna Parrillo scored three goals apiece in the win. Cumberland moves on to the D-II final where it will play No. 1 Westerly.
Alexis Novicki and Gia Marini scored two goals apiece for Burrillville and Grace Doughty made 11 saves in the loss.
🥍GIRLS LACROSSE – D-III semifinals
Toll Gate 15, East Providence 5
It’s tough to beat a team three times in one season, but the Titans made it look easy as the offense played practically perfect in a 15-5 win over the Townies.
No. 2 Toll Gate beat No. 6 East Providence – the defending D-III champs – in a defensive battle, 6-5, on May 13, then outscored them 13-7 on May 20. That second game showed the Titans something and the offense was even better in the third meeting of the season.
Delanie Wheeler could not be stopped, scoring seven goals to lead all scorers. Aubrey Rubeira was also terrific, scoring four times. Jenna White had a pair of goals and Tate Payne and Stella Kraus had the other two scores. Olivia Napolitano made five saves in the win.
Alyssa Karalekas left it all on the field in her final game for EP, scoring four times. Sydney Olson added one goal in the loss.
Toll Gate moves on to Sunday’s Division III final and will take on the winner of Wednesday’s semifinal between No. 1 Smithfield and No. 4 Pilgrim.
🥍GIRLS LACROSSE – D-IV semifinals
Scituate 7, Coventry 2
The Spartans offense owned the first half and the defense took care of business in the second as they pull out a 7-2 win over the Oakers and earned their spot in Sunday’s Division IV title game.
No. 3 Coventry beat No. 2 Scituate for the Division IV title last year and came away with a win in the regular-season rematch this spring, giving the Spartans plenty of motivation.
The offense was ready to put on a show and did in the first two quarters to take a 5-1 lead. Coventry tried to battle back, but the Scituate defense was too tough and didn’t let the Oakers find a rhythm,
Julianna Pimental led Scituate with seven goals and Grace Jacavone and Bella O’Leary scored two goals apiece. Maelie Bowden had three assists and Lainey Nelson made eight saves in the win.
Hailey Duggan and Addie DeMarzo scored the goals for Coventry, who hung tough despite an injury to star goalie Maddy Vorro in the third quarter.
Scituate will look to win a title that evaded it last season when it takes on the winner of Wednesday’s semifinal between No. 1 Lincoln and No. 3 Tiverton.
🥍BOYS LACROSSE – D-III semifinals
Lincoln 5, Narragansett 2
Jake Rousseau’s story on the third-seeded Lions’ upset over the second-seeded and defending Division III champion Mariners can be found here.
🥍BOYS LACROSSE – D-IV semifinals
Rogers 9, Ponaganset 2
The Vikings gave up a goal early, then took over the game in a 9-2 win over the Chieftains, giving the defending Division IV champs a shot at winning another title.
No. 3 Ponaganset took the long ride to Newport and showed up ready to play, as Otto Pearson scored the first goal of the game 1:12 in, giving his team a boost of energy.
Rogers, the No. 2 seed, came back in a hurry, getting four goals from four different players before the quarter was over to go up 5-1 at halftime, then second the first four goals of the second half to put things away.
Luke Mathews led the way for the Vikings with four goals. Brady McCombe scored twice for Rogers and Quinaln Green, Aidan O’Connell and Jayvia Perez had the remaining goals. Rogers moves on to the Division IV final against top-seeded Scituate in a rematch of last year’s championship game.
Pearson scored the first goal of the game for Ponaganset and the last was scored by Owen Machan.
🏐BOYS VOLLEYBALL – D-II semifinals
West Warwick 3, Central Falls 1
The Wizards came in looking for revenge and got it while earning a title-game spot in the process, downing the Warriors 25-19, 22-25, 25-16, 25-23.
No. 1 West Warwick’s only loss to a Division-II team this spring came in four sets at the hands of No. 4 Central Falls on May 6. The Wizards took down the first set to gain momentum, but gave it back as the Warriors played great late in the second set.
West Warwick’s vaunted offense took over in the third set and the team rode that energy into the third, closing with a fury. Ian Degnan ran things to perfection and finished with 58 assists, with Colin Kelly leading the Wizards with 16 kills. Alex Osmena came through with 14 kills and Liam Sisson had nine kills and four aces in the win.
Emmanuel Tavares led Central Falls with 12 kills and Nicolas Goncalves had 10 kills in the loss. Daniel Rojo, did what he could in the back, coming up with 16 digs.
West Warwick advances to Saturday’s Division II title match and will take on No. 2 Westerly.
🏐BOYS VOLLEYBALL – D-III semifinal
EWG 3, St. Raphael 0
The Scarlet Knights weren’t going to let the Cinderella Saints pull off another upset, winning big points when it mattered most in a 25-21, 27-25, 25-22 win that sends them to the Division II title game.
No. 3 Exeter-West Greenwich knew what No. 7 St. Raphael was capable of after its 3-1 home win on May 20 and then seeing the Saints take down No. 2 North Providence in the quarterfinals.
The Knights had a balanced offensive attack, with setter Will Edwards finishing with 29 assists and using all the weapons at his disposal. Zoltan Libertini led the way with 10 kills, Derik Payette had eight kills and Casey Kretchman finished with seven kills in the win.
Jameson Taylor left it all on the court for the Saints, finishing with 19 kills. Joe Clifton had five kills and three blocks and Brighton Champagne finished with 32 assists in the loss.
🥎SOFTBALL – D-II losers’ final
Ponaganaset 5, Johnston 2
Bill Koch’s story on the seventh-seeded Chieftains’ upset over the second-seeded Panthers is coming soon.
🥎SOFTBALL – D-III winners’ final
Tiverton 14, Rogers 9
Bill Koch’s story on the top-seeded Tigers’ win over the second-seeded Vikings can be found here.
RIIL PLAYOFF SCHEDULE – Wednesday, June 3
🥎SOFTBALL – Division III losers’ final
No. 3 Exeter-West Greenwich vs. No. 2 Rogers at Rhode Island College, 5 p.m.
🥍BOYS LACROSSE – D-II semifinals
No. 5 Prout at No. 1 Westerly, 6 p.m.
No. 3 Portsmouth at No. 2 East Greenwich, 7:30 p.m.
🥍BOYS LACROSSE – D-III semifinals
No. 5 North Smithfield vs. No. 1 Mt. Hope at Roger Williams, 3:30 p.m.
🥍BOYS LACROSSE – D-IV semifinals
No. 4 North Providence at No. 1 Scituate, 4 p.m.
🥍GIRLS LACROSSE – D-I semifinals
No. 4 La Salle at No. 1 Moses Brown, 5 p.m.
No. 3 Barrington at No. 2 East Greenwich, 5:30 p.m.
🥍GIRLS LACROSSE – D-III semifinals
No. 4 Pilgrim at No. 1 Smithfield, 6 p.m.
🥍GIRLS LACROSSE – D-IV semifinals
No. 4 Tiverton at No. 1 Lincoln, 4 p.m.
🏐BOYS VOLLEYBALL – D-I semifinals
No. 4 North Kingstown vs. No. 1 La Salle at RIC, 5:30 p.m.
No. 6 East Greenwich vs. No. 2 Hendricken at RIC, 7:30 p.m.
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