15 Kaiser Permanente Hospitals Receive 'Top Hospitals' National Recognition

OAKLAND, Calif., Dec. 6, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Fifteen Kaiser Permanente hospitals are among the country's best for providing high quality, innovative expert care, according to newly released report.

The Leapfrog Group, a national watchdog group that compares hospitals' performance on U.S. standards of safety, quality and efficiency, today released its annual list of "Top Hospitals" and Kaiser Permanente has more hospitals on the list than any other organization.

"Our hospitals are among the very best in the nation because our care teams are committed to doing what's best for the member, keeping them safe and providing the highest quality care," said Michael Kanter, MD, executive vice president and chief quality officer of The Permanente Federation, the national organization for the nearly 19,000 physicians who exclusively provide care to Kaiser Permanente's members. "The health and well-being of our nearly 11 million members is a shared responsibility among our highly skilled physicians, nurses and care teams, working together collaboratively as one team."

In order to be on the list, a "Top Hospital" must have fulfilled rigorous performance standards for high-risk procedures, and attained outstanding success in areas such as instituting stringent safety practices and reducing infection and mortality rates for common procedures. Hospitals must also fully meet Leapfrog's standards for implementing computer physician order entry systems.

Nine of the Kaiser Permanente "Top Hospitals" were also named "Top Teaching" hospitals. Teaching hospitals are those with a documented affiliation agreement with a medical school or participate in a number of approved, active residency programs such as obstetrics/gynecology or pediatrics.

Another six were honored as "Top General" hospitals.

KAISER PERMANENTE "TOP HOSPITALS"

• Kaiser Permanente Fremont Medical Center (Teaching)
• Kaiser Permanente Roseville Medical Center (Teaching)
• Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Medical Center (Teaching)
• Kaiser Permanente Vacaville Medical Center (Teaching)
• Kaiser Permanente Vallejo Medical Center (Teaching)
• Kaiser Permanente Orange County-Anaheim Medical Center (Teaching)
• Kaiser Permanente Orange County-Irvine Medical Center (Teaching)
• Kaiser Permanente Fontana Medical Center (Teaching)
• Kaiser Permanente Downey Medical Center (Teaching)
• Kaiser Permanente Baldwin Park Medical Center (General)
• Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Medical Center (General)
• Kaiser Permanente Ontario Medical Center (General)
• Kaiser Permanente Panorama City Medical Center (General)
• Kaiser Permanente Woodland Hills Medical Center (General)
• Kaiser Permanente Sunnyside (Oregon) Medical Center (General)

The annual "Top Hospital" list is a prestigious group of U.S. medical centers. While more than 1,800 hospitals completed the Leapfrog survey and were considered for the recognition, only 115 (about six percent) were named to the list.  In California, only 23 teaching or general hospitals received the honor. Kaiser Permanente's 14 hospitals make up nearly two-thirds of the list of teaching and general hospitals.

"Kaiser Permanente's outstanding performance in The Leapfrog Group's "Top Hospital" ratings reflects the successful outcomes that come from providing care within an integrated, seamless, coordinated health care model," said Patrick Courneya, MD, executive vice president and chief medical officer for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals. "At the same time, we seek to deliver more meaningful, effective and efficient care by utilizing industry-leading technological advancements that make it more convenient – and safer -- for our members and patients to get their care."

The "Top Hospitals" quality designation  is the most recent in a string of national ones given to Kaiser Permanente hospitals and health plans in the past few months:

• Leapfrog's Hospital Safety Grade. In October, 22 Kaiser Permanente hospitals received "A" grades in Leapfrog's semiannual ratings, eight more than the previous grading period.
  
  
• Medicare Star Quality Ratings. For 2017, five of Kaiser Permanente's seven Medicare health plans received an overall rating of 5 stars, the highest rating from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Kaiser Permanente's Medicare plans in California have been rated 5 stars for six consecutive years.
  
  
• U.S. News & World Report's "Best Hospitals." In 2016, 28 Kaiser Permanente hospitals were listed as "high performing" for one or more measures of common or complex care in the magazine's annual report.
  
  
• NCQA Quality Compass dataset for commercial measures. According to the 2016 National Committee for Quality Assurance report, Kaiser Permanente is the highest rated health plan in 21 of the 48 effectiveness-of-care measures. More than 500 U.S. plans are considered. This is the eighth successive year Kaiser Permanente has had more No.1s than any other health plan.
  
  
• J.D. Power Member Satisfaction Study. In the 2016 study, Kaiser Permanente members in five geographic areas rated their health plan highest in satisfaction. Kaiser Permanente members in California rated their health plan highest in satisfaction for nine years in a row.

To view the complete list of Leapfrog's 2016 "Top Hospitals," visit the 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 currently serve more than 10.6 million members in eight 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/share.

Information: Marc Brown
[email protected]
510-271-6328

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