Clinical Excellence
December 8, 2009
Six Kaiser Permanente Hospitals Among “Leapfrog Top Hospitals” of 2009
Six Kaiser Permanente hospitals — three in Northern California and three in Southern California — were named 2009 Leapfrog Top Hospitals, an honor that rewards medical centers for their outstanding success is such areas as infection rates, safety practices, mortality rates for common procedures, and measures of efficiency.
Kaiser Permanente’s Anaheim Medical Center, Baldwin Park Medical Center, Bellflower/Downey Medical Center, Hayward Medical Center, Sacramento Medical Center and South Sacramento Medical Center were recognized as being among the top 34 urban hospitals in the nation. Nearly 1,000 urban hospitals completed the Leapfrog survey and were considered for the award.
Among the other non-Kaiser Permanente hospitals to receive the recognition were the Mayo Clinics in Phoenix, Ariz., and Rochester, Minn.; Stanford Hospital & Clinics; and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
“Our inclusion among the top hospitals in the country is yet another indication of the high quality care and service provided by our physicians, nurses and clinicians,” said Jed Weissberg, MD, senior vice president, Quality and Care Delivery Excellence, Kaiser Permanente. “This honor also brings attention to the benefits of our cutting-edge electronic health record, a tool that promotes efficiency, quality and patient safety.”
The Leapfrog Group is a voluntary reporting program that recognizes and rewards U.S. health care groups for safety, quality and customer value. The questions Leapfrog asks on its survey are consistent with measures used by The Joint Commission, National Quality Forum and Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services.
To make the cut and be among the top hospitals in urban areas for 2009, the medical centers must have reported that they fulfilled the following criteria:
- Fully met Leapfrog standards for implementing computer physician order entry systems (that have been shown to reduce medication errors by up to 85 percent), and for passing Leapfrog’s test of their system
- Fully met stringent performance standards for complex, high-risk procedures (such as heart bypass surgery) done in that particular hospital
- Fully met standards for staffing the intensive care unit, shown to reduce mortality by 40 percent or more, and
- Scored in the top decile in the country for efficiency — scored by the Leapfrog Hospital Recognition Program incorporating quality outcomes, length of stay, readmission rates, and incidence of hospital acquired conditions and infections. The efficiency standard applies to heart bypass surgery, heart angioplasty, heart attack and pneumonia patients.
The Leapfrog Group also recognized the top three rural hospitals and top eight children’s hospitals.
View the complete list of the 2009 Leapfrog Top Hospitals or visit The Leapfrog Group’s Web site at www.leapfroggroup.org.
