All 14 Kaiser Permanente hospitals in Southern California have received an “A” on the Hospital Safety Score from The Leapfrog Group, an independent industry watchdog. This marks the second year all Kaiser Permanente Southern California hospitals were awarded the highest grade.
“Patient safety is our focus and commitment at Kaiser Permanente. This latest recognition is the result of placing systems and technology in the hands of people who care,” said Edward M. Ellison, MD, executive medical director for the Southern California Permanente Medical Group. “The powerful combination of infection control surveillance technology and the personal attention our highly trained physicians and staff show to each of our members makes Kaiser Permanente hospitals some of the safest in the nation.”
“This honor further demonstrates the superior medical care we provide to our 3.7 million members in Southern California and reassures our patients that they will receive quality care at hospitals that are consistently among the safest in the nation,” said Benjamin Chu, MD, MPH, MACP, group president for Kaiser Permanente Southern California and Kaiser Permanente Hawaii. “This high mark for all Kaiser Permanente Southern California hospitals is recognition that our medical centers are meeting the highest standards for national hospital safety and quality measures.”
Calculated under the guidance of The Leapfrog Group’s Blue Ribbon Expert Panel, the Hospital Safety Score uses 28 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to produce a single “A” thru “F” score, representing a hospital’s overall capacity to keep patients safe from preventable harm. More than 2,500 U.S. general hospitals were assigned scores in spring 2014, with less than one-third receiving an “A” grade.
“Safety should come first for our families when we pick a hospital, because errors and infections are common and deadly,” said Leah Binder, president & CEO of The Leapfrog Group, which produces the Hospital Safety Score. “No hospital is perfect, but we congratulate the Board, clinicians, administration, and staff of the Kaiser Permanente Southern California medical centers for achieving an “A” and showing us that you made the well-being of your patients your top priority.”
The Hospital Safety Score is fully transparent, and its website offers a full analysis of the data and methodology used in determining grades. It is the first and only hospital safety rating to be peer-reviewed in the Journal of Patient Safety. The Score is free to the public and designed to give consumers information they can use to protect themselves and their families when facing a hospital stay.
About The Leapfrog Group
The Hospital Safety Score (www.hospitalsafetyscore.org) is an initiative of The Leapfrog Group (www.leapfroggroup.org), a national nonprofit organization using the collective leverage of large purchasers of health care to initiate breakthrough improvements in the safety, quality and affordability of health care for Americans. The flagship Leapfrog Hospital Survey allows purchasers to structure their contracts and purchasing to reward the highest performing hospitals. The Leapfrog Group was founded in November 2000 with support from the Business Roundtable and national funders and is now independently operated with support from its purchaser and other members.
About Kaiser Permanente Southern California
Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America’s leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, our mission is to provide high quality, affordable health care services to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve more than 3.7 million members in Southern California. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the-art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health. For more information, go to: www.kp.org/share.
