Scripps Encinitas Earns 'B' Grade for Hospital Safety

Scripps Encinitas Hospital received a "B" grade for hospital safety today from the Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit organization that measures medical center performance. 

Eight hospitals in San Diego County received "A" grades for hospital: Fallbrook Hospital, Kaiser Permanente Hospital, Palomar Medical Center, Paradise Valley Hospital, Pomerado Hospital, Scripps Mercy Hospital, Sharp Coronado Hospital and UCSD Medical Center. 

Alvarado Hospital, Sharp Chula Vista Hospital and Sharp Memorial Hospital were each given a "B."

Sharp Grossmont Hospital received a "C." The grade for Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside was pending, a situation that was not explained.

According to The Leapfrog Group, more than 180,000 people die annually from hospital infections, injuries and errors; a Medicare patient has a one-in-four chance of experiencing injury, harm or death when admitted to a hospital; and 493 people die daily because of a preventable hospital error – the equivalent of a jetliner full of people crashing every day.

Leapfrog's Hospital Safety Score uses data from the organization's own survey, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. It also incorporates information from the American Hospital Association's annual survey.

Among the categories of data are identification and mitigation of hazards, hand hygiene, use of antibiotics before and after surgery, and falls and trauma.

—City News Service