SUBMITTED ARTICLE
SALINAS — Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System (SVMHS) has achieved a fifth consecutive “A” rating for its commitment to patient safety.
The Leapfrog Group, an independent national nonprofit organization announced last Wednesday it awarded SVMHS an “A” grade in the Spring 2017 Hospital Safety Score, which rates how well hospitals protect patients from errors, injuries and infections.
“Salinas Valley Memorial is well known for providing the highest quality medical care to our patients,” says Pete Delgado, president/CEO of Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System. “Our staff, physicians and hospital leadership put the highest priority on safety protocols, communication and best practices which is why we continue to receive the highest grade possible. We again congratulate our team for meeting this high standard of excellence.”
The Hospital Safety Score uses 30 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to produce a single letter grade ranging from “F” being the worst and “A” being the best.
The Hospital Safety Score is compiled under the guidance of the nation’s leading experts on patient safety and is administered by The Leapfrog Group to represent a hospital’s overall capacity to keep patients safe from preventable harm.
Each measure analyzed falls into one of two categories — a process/structural measurement or an outcome measurement, each accounting for 50 percent of the overall score.
“Hospitals that earn top marks nationally in the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, have achieved the highest safety standards in the country,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “That takes commitment from every member of the hospital staff, who all deserve thanks and congratulations when their hospitals achieve an ‘A’ Safety Grade.”
The study analyzed more than 2,600 general hospitals nationwide and less than one third received an “A” grade — only 823 hospitals nationwide earned an “A” grade. On the A-F scale, the greatest number of hospitals received a “C” letter grade.
The Hospital Safety Score is calculated under the guidance of the Leapfrog Blue Ribbon Expert Panel, with a fully transparent methodology analyzed in the peer-reviewed Journal of Patient Safety. For more information about the A score received at SVMHS or to view the list of state rankings, visit hospitalsafetyscore.org.
