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Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa Hospital Receives Top Safety Scores

Hospital safety records examined by The Leapfrog Group show that Kaiser Permanente hospitals rank high in limiting patient injuries, reducing medical errors and preventing infections

Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa Hospital is among 18 Kaiser Permanente hospitals in Northern California to receive the top score of “A” by the Leapfrog Group in its annual safety report, which examined and graded more than 2,500 hospitals throughout the United States.

The Leapfrog Group, an independent national nonprofit run by employers and other large purchasers of health benefits, released its Hospital Safety Scores after examining publicly available data on patient injuries, medical and medication errors and infections at U.S. hospitals, which were then assigned A, B, C, D, or F grades for their safety records.

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“Patients are at the center of everything we do,” said Judy Coffey, RN, Kaiser Permanente Sr. Vice President and Area Manager, Marin-Sonoma. “We are pleased to be recognized for the high quality care and service provided by our physicians, nurses and staff to ensure our patients are being cared for safely and receive world-class treatment at our hospital.”

Other Kaiser Permanente hospitals in Northern California with “A” scores were:  Antioch, Fremont, Fresno, Hayward, Manteca, Modesto, Redwood City, Richmond, Sacramento, San Jose, Santa Clara, San Rafael, San Francisco, South Sacramento, South San Francisco, Vallejo and Walnut Creek.

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“These scores once again demonstrate the superiority of Kaiser Permanente's integrated, technologically enabled approach to patient care,” said Dr. Robert Pearl, executive director and CEO of The Permanente Medical Group. “Earning these region-leading hospital scores, combined with being ranked the highest in California by both the National Committee for Quality Assurance and the California Office of the Patient Advocate, is the equivalent of winning the Triple Crown. This recognition is a tribute to the exceptional skill of our physicians and staff.”

The Leapfrog Group is a coalition of public and private purchasers of employee health coverage founded in 2000 to work for improvements in health care safety, quality and affordability.  It is an independent advocacy group working with a broad range of partners, including hospitals and insurers. Since 2006, the organization has published an annual list of Top Hospitals in the U.S. using national measures of health-care quality, safety and efficiency. This is the second year it has published the Hospital Safety Scores, which uses 26 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to produce a single score representing a hospital’s overall capacity to keep patients safe from infections, injuries, and medical and medication errors.

To see all hospital scores as they compare nationally and locally, visit www.hospitalsafetyscore.org, the Hospital Safety Score website, which also provides information on how the public can protect themselves and loved ones during a hospital stay. Local hospitals’ scores are also available on the free mobile app, available at www.hospitalsafetyscore.org.

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