Leapfrog: California Hospitals Rank 9th in U.S. for Patient Safety

On Tuesday, the Leapfrog Group released a report card that gave 104 California hospitals an "A" grade for patient safety, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reports (Gumz, Santa Cruz Sentinel, 4/28).

Details of Report

Leapfrog scored more than 2,500 general hospitals across the U.S. using hospital safety data on:

• Infections;
• Injuries; and
• Medical and medication errors (Glover, Sacramento Bee, 4/29).

Leapfrog did not rate specialty hospitals (Santa Cruz Sentinel, 4/28).

National Grades

Leapfrog gave 804 hospitals across the U.S. an "A" grade.

It also gave:

• 668 hospitals a "B" grade;
• 878 hospitals a "C" grade;
• 150 hospitals a "D" grade; and
• 22 hospitals an "F" grade.

According to the report, hospital performance nationally has improved by 6.3% since 2012.

In addition, 48 states -- including California -- have improved their mean scores since 2012 (Leapfrog release, 4/29).

California Grades

Overall, the report ranked California ninth in the U.S. for the number of hospitals receiving an "A" grade for patient safety. In addition to the California hospitals that received an "A" grade:

• 58 hospitals in the state received a "B" grade;
• 68 hospitals in the state received a "C" grade; and
• 18 hospitals in the state received a "D" grade.

Five California hospitals received an "F" grade:

• El Centro Regional Medical Center;
• Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield;
• Madera Community Hospital;
• Natividad Medical Center in Salinas; and
• Western Medical Center of Santa Ana (Leapfrog report card, 4/29).