Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara earns top grade for patient safety

Reinforcing Kaiser Permanente’s commitment to health care quality excellence, Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara hospital was recognized with an “A” grade for patient safety, according to The Leapfrog Group’s biannual Hospital Safety Grades report.

Leapfrog reviews hospital clinical data and assigns hospitals grades based on approximately two dozen measures that analyze patient injuries, medical and medication errors, and infections.

“These patient safety scores reflect the high-quality health care that Kaiser Permanente provides to our members, patients, and the community we serve in Santa Clara County,” said Eric Williams, FACHE, senior vice president and area manager of Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara. “It’s an honor to be recognized again by the Leapfrog Group, and it reflects the skill and dedication of our physicians, nurses, and staff.”

This spring, 13 Kaiser Permanente hospitals in Northern California received A grades from Leapfrog including: Antioch, Fresno, Manteca, Modesto, Oakland, Roseville, San Francisco, San Jose, San Rafael, Santa Clara, Santa Rosa, South Sacramento, and South San Francisco.

“Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara puts patient safety at the forefront of everything we do, and this recognition is a testament to the dedication of our physicians, nurses, and staff,” said Rakesh Chaudhary, MD, physician in chief of the Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Medical Center. “We take great pride in once again being named among the top hospitals in the nation for patient safety.”

The Leapfrog Group assigns letter grades to nearly 3,000 hospitals throughout the United States. The grades are updated twice annually, in the fall and spring.

More than 60% of Kaiser Permanente Northern California hospitals received an A grade. In California overall, only about 30% of the state’s hospitals earned this top grade.

The Leapfrog Group, an independent national nonprofit run by employers and other large purchasers of health benefits, released its Hospital Safety Grades after examining publicly available data on patient injuries, medical and medication errors, and infections at U.S. hospitals. The report includes data collected by national health care organizations, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Scores are calculated based on more than two dozen publicly available measures, and hospitals are then assigned A, B, C, D or F grades for their safety records. The grades are released as a free resource to help patients and their families make informed health care decisions.

Kaiser Permanente is one of America’s leading integrated health care providers and serves 12.5 million members. Nationally, 24 of the 39 Kaiser Permanente hospitals that were eligible for a grade, more than 60% percent, received a Leapfrog Safety A grade. In contrast, less than 30% of the nation’s hospitals received an A rating.

For more information and a complete list of the hospital safety grades, visit Leapfrog.