17 Kaiser Permanente Hospitals Named `Top Hospitals' by Leapfrog Group

OAKLAND, Calif., Dec. 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Seventeen Kaiser Permanente hospitals – 10 in Northern California and seven in Southern California – have been named 2012 "Top Hospitals" by the Leapfrog Group, an honor that rewards medical centers for their outstanding success in areas such as reducing infection rates, safety practices, mortality rates for common procedures and measures of efficiency.

The 17 Kaiser Permanente hospitals represent better than one out of every four on Leapfrog's list of urban "Top Hospitals." Out of nearly 1,000 urban hospitals that completed the Leapfrog survey and were considered for the award, only 67 were named "Top Hospitals."

"Our prominence among Leapfrog's top hospitals exemplifies our continuous improvement and our commitment to evidence-based care and personalized service by our physicians, nurses and clinicians," said Jed Weissberg, MD, senior vice president, Quality and Care Delivery Excellence, Kaiser Permanente. "This honor also highlights our dedication to providing our members easy and convenient access to the caregivers and support services they need. Our leadership in the field of technological innovation — especially our electronic health record — promotes efficiency, quality and patient safety."

To be included among Leapfrog's "Top Hospitals," medical centers, among other criteria, must have fulfilled stringent performance standards for high-risk procedures (such as heart bypass surgery) and fully met Leapfrog's standards for implementing computer physician order entry systems.

"At Kaiser Permanente, our physicians, nurses, managers and front-line staff are committed to providing high-quality patient-centered care, whether it is in our hospitals or through illness prevention efforts," said Amy Compton-Phillips, MD, associate executive director of Quality with The Permanente Federation, a national organization representing the eight Permanente Medical Groups. "Our high marks not only acknowledge the dedicated work of our care teams, but also demonstrate Kaiser Permanente's continuous quality improvement strategy that applies best practices to lead to better and safer care."

The "Top Hospitals" honor is the most recent in a string of accolades given to Kaiser Permanente hospitals and health plans. In the past few months:

• Kaiser Permanente Medicare and Commercial health plans received No. 1 rankings for 2012 in 29 effectiveness-of-care measures, far more than any other health plan in the nation.
• Kaiser Permanente's Medicare health plans received a 5-star rating from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the highest ranking possible, in seven of its eight geographical regions.
• Kaiser Permanente was rated by the National Committee for Quality Assurance as having the three highest-ranked Medicare health plans in the nation.

The Leapfrog Group is a coalition of public and private purchasers of employee health coverage. It 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 for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

The Leapfrog Group also recognized 13 rural hospitals and the top 12 children's hospitals.

View the complete list of the 2012 Leapfrog "Top Hospitals," or visit the Leapfrog Group's website at www.leapfroggroup.org.

About Kaiser Permanente

Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America's leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, our mission is to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We serve approximately 8.9 million members in nine states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health. For more information, go to: www.kp.org/newscenter.

For more information, contact:
Mark Camps, 510.625.5624, [email protected]

SOURCE Kaiser Permanente