The Best —And Worst — Hospitals In Riverside County: A to F Ranks

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — A nationwide hospital safety analysis has found that three hospitals in Riverside County received an “A” grade for preventing medical errors, accidents, injuries and infections, which collectively are the third leading cause of death in America. On the flip side, four hospitals received a “D” or worse.

Only seven hospitals in entire state of California received a score of "F," new data from the Leapfrog Group shows. Three of those are here in Riverside County.

The Leapfrog Group released its bi-yearly hospital safety grades on Tuesday, finding that hospitals overall have improved in reducing the number of avoidable deaths. The group assessed roughly 2,500 hospitals. Of those, 30 percent earned an “A,” 28 percent earned a “B,” 35 percent a “C,” 6 percent a “D” and 1 percent an “F.”

“The national numbers on death and harm in hospitals have alarmed us for decades. What we see in the new round of Safety Grades are signs of many hospitals making significant improvements in their patient safety record,” Leah Binder, president and CEO of Leapfrog, said in a release.

The assessment system assigns school-style letter grades to general acute-care hospitals. The hope is to determine a patient’s risk of further injury or infection if they visit a certain hospital.

Here is the full list of hospital grades across the nation. Below, we've broken down the grades for hospitals located within Riverside County:

A Hospitals:

• Kaiser Permanente Riverside Medical Center, 10800 Magnolia Avenue, Riverside
• Temecula Valley Hospital, 31700 Temecula Parkway, Temecula
• Eisenhower Medical Center, 39000 Bob Hope Drive, Rancho Mirage

B Hospitals:

• Inland Valley Medical Center, 36485 Inland Valley Drive, Wildomar
• Rancho Springs Medical Center, 25500 Medical Center Drive, Murrieta
• Riverside Community Hospital, 4445 Magnolia Avenue, Riverside
• Desert Regional Medical Center, 1150 N. Indian Canyon Drive, Palm Springs

C Hospitals:

• Corona Regional Medical Center, 800 S. Main Street, Corona
• John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital, 47111 Monroe Street, Indio
• Loma Linda University Medial Center - Murrieta, 28062 Baxter Road, Murrieta
• Riverside University Health System - Medical Center, 26520 Cactus Avenue, Moreno Valley

D Hospitals:

• Menifee Valley Medical Center, 28400 McCall Boulevard, Sun City

F Hospitals:

• Hemet Valley Medical Center, 1117 E. Devonshire Avenue, Hemet
• Parkview Community Hospital Medical Center, 3865 Jackson Street, Riverside
• San Gorgonio Memorial Hospital, 600 N. Highland Springs Avenue, Banning

San Gorgonio Memorial Hospital has progressively scored worse in the Leapfrog ranks. In 2015, the hospital received a "B" two times, in 2016 it received two "Cs," and in 2017 it received a "C" in the Spring — but a "D" in the fall, according to the agency.

Parkview Community Hospital scored "Cs" back in 2015 and "Ds" in 2016 and 2017 before dropping to an "F" this time.

Hemet Valley Medical Center had a "C" in the Spring of 2015 before improving to a "B" in the Fall that year. However, it scored two "Cs" again in 2016, followed by a "D" in the Spring of 2017 and an "F" last Fall.

We've reached out to the lowest performing hospitals in the Leapfrog rankings and will provide updates here if and when they issue a statement.

SEE ALSO:

• Temecula Valley Hospital Earns 4th 'A' Grade For Patient Safety
• Eisenhower Health Receives Another 'A' In Patient Safety

Among the findings nationally, five hospitals that received an “A” grade for the first time this year previously received an “F” grade, the group said, and 46 hospitals earned an “A” for the first time since the grading system began six years ago.

Leapfrog said its analysis showed 89 hospitals that had previously received “D” or “F” ratings had improved to an “A” this year.

Rhode Island, Hawaii, Wisconsin and Idaho all previously ranked near the bottom of the state rankings with low percentages of “A” hospitals, but now all rank in the top 10.

Here are some of the other findings:

• The five states with the highest percentage of “A” hospitals this spring are Hawaii, Idaho, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Virginia
• Ten states have hospitals with “F” grades are California, the District of Columbia, Florida, Iowa, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey and New York

Leapfrog says you shouldn’t refuse emergency care because of a bad safety grade. They’re meant to be used as a guide for planned events and a research tool for potential emergencies.

Patch reporters Dan Hampton and Feroze Dhanoa contributed to this report.

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