85 CA Hospitals Named Among Best For Patient Safety, Experience

CALIFORNIA — Dozens of California hospitals are among hundreds nationwide recognized for safety and patient experience by Healthgrades, a comprehensive database of ratings and comparisons for physicians, hospitals and health care providers.

Awards announced Tuesday include the 2024 Patient Safety Excellence Award, which recognizes hospitals nationwide for high-quality care and prevention of serious safety events during hospital stays, and the 2024 Outstanding Patient Experience Award.

Only 79 of 444 hospitals nationwide received both awards.

85 hospitals in the Golden State were among those recognized, including 15 that landed in the top 250 best overall:

• Adventist Health Glendale
• Alta Bates Summit Medical Center (Berkeley)
• Good Samaritan Hospital (San Jose)
• Los Robles Regional Medical Center (Thousand Oaks)
• Mills-Peninsula Medical Center (Burlingame)
• Northridge Hospital Medical Center
• Providence Holy Cross Medical Center (Mission Hills)
• Saddleback Medical Center (Laguna Hills)
• St. John's Regional Medical Center (Oxnard)
• West Hills Hospital & Medical Center
• Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula
• Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
• Stanford Health Care
• UC San Diego Health
• UCSF Helen Diller Medical Center at Parnassus Heights (San Francisco)

Three California hospitals were dual recipients of patient safety and experience awards: the Mills-Peninsula Medical Center in Burlingame, Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City, and Torrance Memorial Medical Center. The Mills-Peninsula Medical Center was among just 15 hospitals nationwide that earned the "triple crown."

Here are the CA hospitals that were recognized for excellence in patient safety and experience:

The Patient Safety Excellence Award was presented to the top 10 percent of hospitals, based on an analysis of required data reporting in 13 patient safety measures. Read more about the methodology.

Healthgrades said that if all hospitals observed the same protocols as those in this category, they could have avoided more than 97,000 patient safety events between 2020 and 2022, the report said. The analysis revealed that patients treated at recipient hospitals are less likely to experience the following safety events compared to patients treated at non-recipient hospitals:

• In-hospital falls resulting in fracture (approximately 52 percent less likely)
• Collapsed lung due to a procedure or surgery in or around the chest (approximately 56 percent less likely)
• Pressure sores or bed sores acquired in the hospital (approximately 67 percent less likely)
• Catheter-related bloodstream infections acquired in the hospital (approximately 71 percent less likely).

For the patient experience awards, Healthgrades reviewed Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems patient survey data. Read more about the methodology. The 388 award recipients in this category represent the top 15 percent of eligible U.S. hospitals that provided best-in-class patient experiences during the January 2022 to December 2022 study period.

Experiences that made a difference to patients included communication with both doctors and nurses, as well as clear communication about follow-up care upon discharge.