13 California Facilities Make Leapfrog’s List for Country’s Top Hospitals

Several California hospitals ranked among the country's top hospitals for patient safety and quality in the Leapfrog Group's 2009 annual hospital survey, the San Francisco Business Times reports.

The Leapfrog survey compared data from about 1,200 hospitals located in 41 states.

It ranked the hospitals on performance standards such as:

• Implementing computerized physician order entry systems;
• Maintaining appropriate ICU staffing levels;
• Managing heart bypass surgery and other high-risk procedures; and
• Meeting efficiency goals for hospital-acquired infections, length of stay, quality outcomes, readmission rates and other measures (Rauber, San Francisco Business Times, 12/4).

Of the facilities examined, 45 received recognition as "top hospitals" in one of three categories (Calvan, Sacramento Bee, 12/4).

California Hospitals Recognized

For urban hospitals, the California facilities that made Leapfrog's list are:

• California Pacific Medical Center, Davies Campus, San Francisco;
• California Pacific Medical Center, California Campus, San Francisco;
• California Pacific Medical Center, Pacific Campus, San Francisco;
• Kaiser Permanente Anaheim Medical Center;
• Kaiser Permanente Baldwin Park Medical Center;
• Kaiser Permanente Bellflower/Downey Medical Center;
• Kaiser Permanente Hayward Hospital;
• Kaiser Permanente Sacramento Hospital;
• Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento Hospital;
• Stanford Hospital and Clinics; and
• UC-Davis Medical Center, Sacramento (Monegain, Healthcare IT News, 12/4).

For pediatric centers, the California facilities that made the list include:

• Children's Hospital Los Angeles; and
• Children's Hospital of Orange County.

No California hospitals were among the three rural medical centers to receive top recognition (San Francisco Business Times, 12/4).