Bethany Bump is reporting for the Times Union hospitals in the Capital Region are not getting any safer, according to the latest ratings from the national health care monitoring organization, The Leapfrog Group. The group assesses more than 2,600 hospitals nationwide each spring and fall on 28 measures of patient safety, including hospital-acquired infections, problems with surgery and other preventable complications that arise during hospital stays. Each hospital is assigned a letter grade from A to F. In the Capital Region, six health care systems, including Columbia Memorial Hospital in Hudson, saw their grades drop from what they were awarded one year ago. Columbia Memorial went from a "C" to a "D." The hospital scored poorly in all categories including infections, problems with surgery, practices to prevent errors and specifics related to personnel. The ratings, which are among the toughest hospital quality ratings there are, have been a thorn in hospitals' sides since they were first introduced in 2000, according to Bump. Read the full story in the Times Union.