SVMH lands ‘A’ grade for patient safety

There’s no denying Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System’s commitment to patient safety. Once again, the national survey from The Leapfrog Group, an independent national nonprofit organization awarded SVMHS an “A” grade in the Fall 2014 Hospital Safety Score, which rates how well hospitals protect patients from errors, injuries and infections.

“The culture of safety and quality in this organization is outstanding,” says Pete Delgado, president/CEO of Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System. “We received the highest grade possible because day in and day out, our physicians, nurses and entire staff diligently focus on patient care.”

Of all the hospitals surveyed nationally, 31 percent received ‘A’ grades. 4 of those hospitals are here on the Central Coast. SVMH, CHOMP, Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz and Watsonville Community all received ‘A’ grades in the Hospital Safety Score survey. Natividad hospital received an ‘F’.

The Hospital Safety Score uses 28 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.

“Patient safety needs to be a 24-7 priority for hospitals, as errors and infections are all too common and often deadly,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, which administers the Hospital Safety Score. “We commend the ‘A’ hospitals, including Salinas Valley Memorial, for helping us to raise the standards of health care nationwide, and demonstrating that they’ve made the well-being of patients a top priority.”

SVMH has other services to be proud of with numerous awards for patient care including hip and joint replacement. You can see all of SVMH’s awards here: http://www.svmh.com/about/news/news_awards.aspx

The Hospital Safety Score study analyzed more than 2,500 general hospitals nationwide For more information about the ‘A’ score or to view the list of local, state and national rankings, visit the Hospital Safety Score website www.hospitalsafetyscore.org.