Eleven Prime Healthcare hospitals were honored with an “A” Hospital Safety Score by The Leapfrog Group, an independent national nonprofit run by employers and other large purchasers of health benefits.
The first annual Hospital Safety Score(SM) was calculated under the guidance of The Leapfrog Group’s Blue Ribbon Expert Panel. Using publicly available information, the panel graded more than 2,600 U.S. hospitals based on data that tracks preventable errors and medical complications, such as hospital-acquired infections and medication mixups. U.S. hospitals were assigned an A, B, C, D, or F for their safety. Only 729 of the hospitals graded received an “A.” Alvarado Hospital received a “B” but has been a Leapfrog Excellence in Patient Safety & Health Care Quality Award in recent years.
“We are committed to keeping our patients safe and for making safety information available to healthcare consumers,” said Prem Reddy, M.D., FACC, FCCP, Chairman, President, and CEO of Prime Healthcare Services.
“These high scores highlight the devotion and hard work by the physicians, nurses and staff at these hospitals to the highest standards of quality care in the nation.”
The Prime Healthcare hospitals that received an “A” were Centinela Hospital Medical Center, Chino Valley Medical Center, Desert Valley Hospital, Encino Hospital (Non-profit), Garden Grove Hospital Medical Center, La Palma Intercommunity Hospital, Paradise Valley Hospital, San Dimas Community Hospital, Shasta Regional Medical Center, Sherman Oaks Hospital (Non-profit) and West Anaheim Medical Center.
“It’s The Leapfrog Group’s goal to give patients the information they need and deserve before even entering a hospital,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “We congratulate the hospitals that earned an ‘A’ and we look forward to the day when all hospitals in the U.S. will earn the highest scores for putting patient safety first.”
To see the hospitals’ scores as they compare nationally and locally, visit www.hospitalsafetyscore.org, the Hospital Safety Score(SM) website, which also provides information on how the public can protect themselves and loved ones during a hospital stay.
Calculated under the guidance of The Leapfrog Group’s nine-member Blue Ribbon Expert Panel, the Hospital Safety Score uses 26 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to produce a single score representing a hospital’s overall capacity to keep patients safe from infections, injuries, and medical and medication errors. The panel includes John Birkmeyer (University of Michigan), Ashish Jha (Harvard University), Lucian Leape (Harvard University), Arnold Millstein (Stanford University), Peter Pronovost (Johns Hopkins University), Patrick Romano (University of California, Davis), Sara Singer (Harvard University), Tim Vogus (Vanderbilt University), and Robert Wachter (University of California, San Francisco).