KAISER HONORED BY QUALITY MEASUREMENT GROUP
Ten Kaiser Permanente Northern California hospitals, including the one in Antioch, have been named 2011 Leapfrog Top Hospitals, an honor that rewards medical centers for outstanding success in such areas as using electronic health records to reduce medication and other errors, lowering infection rates, maintaining appropriate physician and nursing staffing, and other measures of safety and efficiency.
“It is an honor to see our Antioch and Walnut Creek hospitals receive this designation,” said Ginger Campbell, senior vice president and area manager for Kaiser Permanente’s Diablo Area. “This reinforces our commitment to quality and reflects the personalized and consistent level of dedicated care we provide to our patients.”
Over the past three years, 13 Kaiser Permanente facilities in Northern California have been named Top Leapfrog Hospitals.
“Kaiser Permanente is consistently recognized by several independent third-party organizations for providing high-quality health care, and this latest honor from Leapfrog is further testament that our physicians, nurses and staff members are consistently delivering personalized, coordinated and technologically advanced care that is improving the health and well-being of our patients and the communities we serve,” said Gregory A. Adams, president of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan/Hospitals, Inc. in Northern California.
Kaiser Permanente Northern California’s Top Hospitals in 2011 are Antioch, Oakland, Richmond, Roseville, San Francisco, San Jose, South Sacramento, South San Francisco, Walnut Creek and Vacaville.
Eight Kaiser Permanente hospitals in Southern California also received the honor, which means that 18 of this year’s 65 Top Hospitals in the U.S. are Kaiser Permanente facilities in California. They were chosen from a field of nearly 1,200 hospitals around the country surveyed this year.
The 18 honored Kaiser Permanente hospitals were all in the “urban” category, and comprised more than a third of the 52 top urban hospitals listed nationally. The other categories surveyed were children’s hospitals (10 honored nationally) and rural hospitals (three nationally).
“The physicians, nurses and staff of Kaiser Permanente consistently deliver outstanding quality care and service that is personalized, technologically advanced and closely coordinated across all disciplines—primary care, specialty care, outpatient care and inpatient care,” said Robert Pearl, MD, executive director and CEO of The Permanente Medical Group.
“Our excellent ratings from Leapfrog and other third-party organizations reflect the excellence and superiority of our integrated model for medical care, which enables our medical group, hospitals and health plan to work together on behalf of our patients to achieve the highest quality outcomes.”
The Leapfrog Group is a coalition of public and private purchasers of employee health coverage founded a decade ago to work for improvements in health care safety, quality and affordability. Initially organized by the Business Roundtable, it is now an independent advocacy group working with a broad range of partners, including hospitals and insurers. The annual survey is the only voluntary effort of its kind.
The 2011 list includes university and other teaching hospitals, children’s hospitals and community hospitals in rural, suburban and urban settings. The selection is based on the results of the Leapfrog Group’s national survey that measures hospitals’ performance in crucial areas of patient safety and quality. 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.
The results of the survey are posted on a website open to the patients and families, the public and employers and other purchasers of health care. It is the most complete picture available of a hospital’s quality and safety. The website is 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 currently serve 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.
