CPMC Named Top Hospital By Leapfrog Group

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 04 Dec 2009 - 1:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   opinions  

California Pacific Medical Center has been named a Top Hospital for patient quality and safety in the 2009 Leapfrog Annual Hospital Survey. CPMC, a Sutter Health affiliate, is one of just three hospitals in the U.S. to win the award four years in a row.

"This is an extraordinary achievement by any standard," says Warren Browner, MD, MPH, CEO of California Pacific Medical Center. "It's a powerful testament to the skill and compassion of our staff in caring for our patients, and to the emphasis we place on putting our patients first in everything we do."

This year's criteria for making the Top Hospital Award list was even more stringent than in the past. This year hospitals not only had to demonstrate top quality, they also had to rise to the top of the list on efficiency.

"This year's class of Top Hospitals not only hits the mark in areas such as medication error prevention and preventing ICU deaths, but they also use their resources wisely, providing excellent and efficient outcomes for patients," said Leah Binder, CEO, The Leapfrog Group. "Regardless of what happens to healthcare reform, these hospitals are the future."

The Leapfrog Annual Hospital Survey analyzed data from more than 1200 hospitals in 41 states, ranking them on four major categories:

- Fully meet Leapfrog standards for implementing computer physician order entry (CPOE) systems (that have been shown to reduce medication errors by up to 85%), and for passing Leapfrog's test of their system;

- Fully meet stringent performance standards for complex, high-risk procedures (such as heart bypass surgery) done in that particular hospital;

- Fully meet standards for staffing the ICU, shown to reduce mortality by 40% or more; - Score in the top 10 percent in the country for efficiency - scored by the Leapfrog Hospital Recognition Program incorporating quality outcomes, length of stay, readmission rates, and incidence of hospital acquired conditions and infections. The efficiency standard applies to heart bypass surgery, heart angioplasty, heart attack and pneumonia patients

"To win this award once is great," says Browner. "But to win it year after year shows that at CPMC we never take safety or quality for granted. We are always trying to improve our performance, always trying to make our hospital a safer place, both for patients and staff."

"When people are putting their life in your hands you have a responsibility to do everything you can to ensure you deserve that trust," says Damian Augustyn, M.D., Medical Chief of Staff at CPMC. "That's why we constantly reassess everything we do to make sure we follow best-practices and that our staff are all focused on patient safety and quality."

Source
California Pacific Medical Center

• Additional
• References
• Citations