La Jolla Hospitals Earn 'A' Grades In Latest LeafpFrog Report

LA JOLLA, CA — A total of 14 hospitals in San Diego, including two in La Jolla, made significant improvements in preventing a “disturbing” increase in hospital infections during the coronavirus pandemic, The Leapfrog Group said with the release Monday of its Fall 2023 Hospital Safety Grades Report. The hospitals represented the cities of Chula Vista, Encinitas, Escondido, La Jolla, La Mesa, National City, Poway, and San Diego.

In La Jolla, Scripps Memorial Hospital of La Jolla and Scripps Green Hospital, and received a "A" grades.

The Leapfrog Group, an independent nonprofit healthcare watchdog group, used an academic grading scale with five letter grades to score nearly 3,000 hospitals nationwide on how well they prevent medical errors, accidents and infections. Overall, the report shows hospitals significantly reduced infections after the pandemic spike, but patient-reported experiences declined for the second year in a row.

Of the 87 hospitals that received an "A" grade on the report in California, 14 of them were San Diego hospitals:

1. Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center, Chula Vista
2. Scripps Mercy Hospital of Chula Vista, Chula Vista
3. Scripps Memorial Hospital of Encinitas, Encinitas
4. Palomar Medical Center Escondido, Escondido
5. UC San Diego Health La Jolla - Jacobs Medical Center and Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center, La Jolla
6. Scripps Memorial Hospital of La Jolla, La Jolla
7. Scripps Green Hospital, La Jolla
8. Sharp Grossmont Hospital, La Mesa
9. Paradise Valley Hospital, National City
10. Palomar Medical Center Poway, Poway
11. UC San Diego Health Hillcrest - Hillcrest Medical Center, San Diego
12. Sharp Memorial Hospital, San Diego
13. Kaiser Permanente Zion Medical Center, San Diego
14. Kaiser Permanente San Diego Medical Center, San Diego

Among 283 California hospitals evaluated in the report, 87 received the gold-standard “A” safety grade. Another 74 earned a “B,” 95 earned a “C” and 23 earned a “D.” Four California hospitals received a failing grade of “F,” according to the report.

The total number of California hospitals that received an “A” Grade for the Fall of 2023 are as follows:

1. West Anaheim Medical Center, Anaheim
2. Kaiser Permanente Orange County-Anaheim Medical Center, Anaheim
3. Kaiser Foundation Hospital - Antioch, Antioch
4. Bakersfield Memorial Hospital, Bakersfield
5. Adventist Health - Bakersfield, Bakersfield
6. Bakersfield Heart Hospital, Bakersfield,
7. Mills-Peninsula Medical Center, Burlingame
8. St. John’s Hospital Camarillo, Camarillo,
9. Mercy San Juan Medical Center, Carmichael
10. Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center, Chula Vista
11. Scripps Mercy Hospital of Chula Vista, Chula Vista
12. Scripps Memorial Hospital of Encinitas, Encinitas
13. Palomar Medical Center Escondido, Escondido
14. Mercy Hospital of Folsom, Folsom
15. Kaiser Permanente Fontana Medical Center, Fontana
16. Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health Center, Glendale
17. Adventist Health Glendale, Glendale
18. Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital, Goleta
19. Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital, Grass Valley
20. MarinHealth Medical Center, Greenbrae
21. Kaiser Permanente Foundation Hospital South Bay, Harbor City
22. Centinela Hospital Medical Center, Inglewood
23. Kaiser Permanente Orange County-Irvine Medical Center, Irvine
24. Hoag Hospital Irvine, Irvine
25. UC San Diego Health La Jolla - Jacobs Medical Center and Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center, La Jolla
26. Scripps Memorial Hospital of La Jolla, La Jolla
27. Scripps Green Hospital, La Jolla
28. Sharp Grossmont Hospital, La Mesa
29. La Palma Intercommunity Hospital, La Palma
30. MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center, Laguna Hills
31. Loma Linda University Medical Center, Loma Linda
32. Loma Linda University Medical Center East Campus, Loma Linda
33. Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center, Los Angeles
34. University of California Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles
35. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital, Los Angeles
36. El Camino Hospital Los Gatos, Los Gatos
37. Mercy Medical Center, Merced
38. Kaiser Foundation Hospital - Modesto, Modesto
39. Montclair Hospital Medical Center, Montclair
40. El Camino Hospital, Mountain View
41. Paradise Valley Hospital, National City
42. Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, Newport Beach
43. Northridge Hospital Medical Center-Roscoe Boulevard Campus, Northridge
44. Novato Community Hospital, Novato
45. Kaiser Foundation Hospital - Oakland, Oakland
46. Kaiser Permanente Ontario Medical Center, Ontario
47. UCI Health, Orange
48. St. John's Regional Medical Center of Oxnard, Oxnard
49. Palmdale Regional Medical Center, Palmdale
50. Kaiser Permanente Panorama City Medical Center, Panorama City
51. Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center, Pomona
52. Palomar Medical Center Poway, Poway
53. Eisenhower Medical Center, Rancho Mirage
54. St. Elizabeth Community Hospital, Red Bluff
55. Sequoia Hospital, Redwood City
56. Kaiser Foundation Hospital - Richmond, Richmond
57. Parkview Community Hospital Medical Center, Riverside
58. Kaiser Permanente Riverside Medical Center, Riverside
59. Kaiser Foundation Hospital - Roseville, Roseville
60. Mercy General Hospital, Sacramento
61. Salinas Valley Health Medical Center, Salinas
62. Dignity Health St. Bernardine Medical Center, San Bernardino
63. UC San Diego Health Hillcrest - Hillcrest Medical Center, San Diego
64. Sharp Memorial Hospital, San Diego
65. Kaiser Permanente Zion Medical Center, San Diego
66. Kaiser Permanente San Diego Medical Center, San Diego
67. UCSF Medical Center at Mount Zion, San Francisco
68. Kaiser Foundation Hospital - San Francisco, San Francisco
69. UCSF Helen Diller Medical Center at Parnassus Heights, San Francisco
70. UCSF Health - Mission Bay, San Francisco
71. Good Samaritan Hospital of San Jose, San Jose
72. Kaiser Foundation Hospital - San Leandro, San Leandro
73. French Hospital Medical Center, San Luis Obispo
74. Kaiser Foundation Hospital - San Rafael, San Rafael
75. Kaiser Foundation Hospital - Santa Clara, Santa Clara
76. Marian Regional Medical Center, Santa Maria
77. Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital, Santa Rosa
78. Kaiser Foundation Hospital - Santa Rosa, Santa Rosa
79. Sherman Oaks Hospital, Sherman Oaks
80. Kaiser Foundation Hospital - South San Francisco, South San Francisco
81. Stanford Health Care, Stanford
82. Temecula Valley Hospital, Temecula
83. Los Robles Regional Medical Center, Thousand Oaks
84. Torrance Memorial Medical Center, Torrance
85. Kaiser Foundation Hospital - Vallejo, Vallejo
86. Kaiser Foundation Hospital - Walnut Creek, Walnut Creek
87. Woodland Memorial Hospital, Woodland

The Leapfrog Group grades hospitals twice a year. In the fall report, the first report using post-pandemic data, 30 percent of hospitals nationwide earned an “A,” 24 percent earned a “B,” 39 percent earned a “C,” 7 percent earned a “D,” and fewer than 1 percent earned an “F.”

The 10 states with the highest number of “A” hospitals are Utah, Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Connecticut, Montana, Tennessee, Florida and Texas.

States that had no “A” hospitals are Vermont, Wyoming, Delaware and North Dakota, as well as Washington, D.C.

More than 85 percent of hospitals saw decreases in the three most dangerous infections — MRSA, central-line bloodstream infections and catheter-associated urinary tract infections.

• 19 percent improved in all three infection measures;
• 66 percent improved in at least one infection measure;
• 16 percent continued to worsen or did not improve.

“Now that we have pre- and post-pandemic data for patient safety measures, we are encouraged by the improvement in infections and applaud hospitals for reversing the disturbing infection spike we saw during the pandemic,” Leapfrog president and CEO Leah Binder said in a news release.

However, Binder said the continued decline in patient experiences is “deeply concerning.” Hospitals in all states have seen a significant decline in reported patient experiences since the fall of 2021, the report said.

Leapfrog says its hospital rating system is the only one in the country focusing solely on a hospital’s ability to protect patients from preventable errors.

The 17 California hospitals that upgraded from a “B” or “C” grade to an “A” grade for the fall of 2023s are:

1. Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health Center, Glendale
2. Parkview Community Hospital Medical Center, Riverside
3. Marian Regional Medical Center, Santa Maria
4. Palomar Medical Center Escondido, Escondido
5. Novato Community Hospital, Novato
6. Kaiser Permanente Panorama City Medical Center, Panorama City
7. Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital, Grass Valley
8. Palmdale Regional Medical Center, Palmdale
9. Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center, Pomona
10. Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital, Santa Rosa
11. UCI Health, Orange
12. MarinHealth Medical Center, Greenbrae
13. Stanford Health Care, Stanford
14. Palomar Medical Center Poway, Poway
15. Bakersfield Heart Hospital, Bakersfield
16. Sherman Oaks Hospital, Sherman Oaks
17. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital, Los Angeles