Kaiser Permanente Hospitals Rated Among Safest in the Nation

OAKLAND, Calif., May 9, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Nearly all Kaiser Permanente hospitals have once again received an A grade for patient safety — and none lower than a B — in The Leapfrog Group's latest Hospital Safety Score report, released this week.

Thirty-two of the 34 Kaiser Permanente medical centers included in the report received A grades (94 percent), while the other two received B grades. 

"The physicians, nurses and staff of Kaiser Permanente not only consistently deliver outstanding quality care and service, but they also deliver the safest hospital care anywhere," said Amy Compton-Phillips, MD, associate executive director for Quality at The Permanente Federation, the national umbrella organization of more than 17,000 physicians who provide care to Kaiser Permanente's 9 million members. "Our superior ratings from Leapfrog reflect Kaiser Permanente's commitment to providing high-quality, affordable health care to our members and improving the health of our members and communities we serve."

Kaiser Permanente's rating in this report represents an improvement over the previous rating in November, when 31 of Kaiser Permamente's 33 hospitals that were included in the report received an A grade, and two received a B.

The Leapfrog Group, a coalition of public and private purchasers of employee health coverage, created the Hospital Safety Score to help consumers decide which hospitals to go to and which to avoid. The report card assigns an A, B, C, D or F letter grade to hospitals based on 26 variables, including rates of infections, medication mix-ups and health care-acquired injuries. It uses data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the American Hospital Association, and its own Leapfrog survey.

While Kaiser Permanente hospitals again were rated among the safest in the country, with 94 percent getting an A grade, hospitals nationwide fared much worse. Only 31 percent of the 2,514 medical centers in the survey were rated with an A grade, and only 25 percent more received a B. In California, it was about the same. Of the 209 non-Kaiser Permanente hospitals in California that were included in the report, only 54 (26 percent) received an A. Of the 86 hospitals in California to receive an A grade, Kaiser Permanente accounted for nearly 40 percent.

The complete list of Leapfrog Hospital Safety Scores can be found at www.hospitalsafetyscore.org.

Kaiser Permanente operates 37 hospitals. In this new report, based primarily on 2011 data, three  Kaiser Permanente hospitals were not graded in the survey because they lacked sufficient volume in certain measures used in Leapfrog's scoring.

The 2013 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Report follows several other recent honors received by Kaiser Permanente:

• Kaiser Permanente's Medicare plans in California received a 5-star rating for 2013, the only health plan in the state to get the top rating and one of only 11 plans in the nation to get a 5-star rating from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. It was the second straight year Kaiser Permanente in California has received 5 stars.
• Seventeen Kaiser Permanente hospitals in Northern California and Southern California were named "Top Hospitals" in 2012 by The Leapfrog Group. Only 93 hospitals in the nation — of more than 1,200 surveyed — received this honor.
• Ten Kaiser Permanente hospitals in California were ranked as Top Performers in 2012 by The Joint Commission.

About The Leapfrog Group
The Leapfrog Group (www.leapfroggroup.org) is a national nonprofit organization using the collective leverage of large purchasers of health care to initiate breakthrough improvements in the safety, quality and affordability of health care for Americans. The flagship Leapfrog Hospital Survey allows purchasers to structure their contracts and purchasing to reward the highest performing hospitals. The Leapfrog Group was founded in November 2000 with support from the Business Roundtable and national funders, and is now independently operated with support from its purchaser and other members.

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 currently serve more than 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: kp.org/newscenter.

Contact: Mark Camps, Kaiser Permanente, 510-625-5624

SOURCE Kaiser Permanente