More Than 100 California Hospitals Receive Top Safety Score

More than 100 California hospitals are among the safest in the nation, according to recent ratings by the Leapfrog Group, Payers & Providers reports (Shinkman, Payers & Providers, 10/30).

Details of Report

For its latest scores, the Leapfrog Group assigned letter grades -- "A," "B," "C," "D" or "F" -- to 2,520 U.S. hospitals based on their performance on:

• 15 process and structural safety measures; and
• 13 outcome-based safety measures.

The group used data from:

• The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality;
• The American Hospital Association's annual survey;
• CDC;
• CMS; and
• The Leapfrog Hospital Survey (Leapfrog methodology, October 2014).

The grades are released twice a year.

National Findings

Since April, when the last report was released, 72 hospitals across the U.S. changed their previous score by at least two grades -- for better or for worse.

According to the latest report:

• 790 hospitals received an "A";
• 688 received a "B";
• 868 received a "C";
• 148 received a "D"; and
• 26 received an "F" (Leapfrog release, 10/29).

The data showed significant improvement since the spring on the 15 process measures (Corwin, Augusta Chronicle, 10/28). Such measures included hand hygiene, intensive care unit staffing and medication reconciliation (Leapfrog release, 10/29).

However, hospitals did not show significant improvement on the 13 outcome-based measures considered (Augusta Chronicle, 10/28).

California Findings

Of the 250 California hospitals graded by Leapfrog in the report:

• 108 received an "A";
• 48 received a "B";
• 70 received a "C";
• 17 received a "D"; and
• Seven received an "F."

The seven hospitals that received failing grades were:

• Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster;
• El Centro Regional Medical Center;
• Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield;
• Loma Linda University Medical Center in Murrieta;
• Madera Community Hospital;
• Natividad Medical Center in Salinas; and
• Western Medical Center of Santa Ana.

Those California facilities represent more than 25% of the total failing scores issued nationwide.

Meanwhile, 31 Kaiser Permanente facilities and 14 Sutter Health facilities in the state received "A" grades (Payers & Providers, 10/30).