Health & Fitness
Hospital Safety Grades: 2 Salinas Hospitals Receive "A" Ranking
Two Salinas hospitals receive an "A" grade in a national ranking of patient safety. All the rankings of area hospitals are listed here.
By MARC TORRENCE (Patch National Staff)
MONTEREY BAY - The Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit founded by employers and health-care providers, announced its Spring 2016 hospital safety rankings Monday, a measure of how safe a hospital is for patients.
Hospitals were given a letter grade from A through F based on several factors. Of the 2,571 hospitals studied nationwide, 798 earned an A, 639 earned a B, 957 earned a C, 162 earned a D and 15 earned an F.
In the Monterey Bay area, two Salinas hospitals - Natividad Medical Center and Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital - received "A" marks from the study. Community Hospital in Monterey received a "B" ranking.
Here are the area hospital rankings as noted by Leapfrog:
"A" rank
- Salinas - Natividad Medical Center
- Salinas - Salinas Valley Memorial
"B" rank
- Monterey - Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula
"C" rank
- Santa Cruz - Dominican
- Hollister - Hazel Hawkins Memorial
- Gilroy - St. Louise Regional
- Watsonville - Watsonville Community Hospital
At the state level, Vermont was ranked No. 1 on Leapfrog's state safety rankings list. Six hospitals in the state were ranked, and five were given an A grade. Maine, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Minnesota rounded out the top five.
California ranked #37.
State rankings were based on a percentage of state hospitals receiving an A grade.
Leapfrog looked at medical errors, accidents, injuries and infections to determine the grades. The goal was to determine a patient's risk of further injury or infection if they visited a certain hospital.
Hospitals given a B rating by Leapfrog had a 9 percent higher risk of avoidable death than A hospitals. That number jumps to 35 percent in C hospitals and 50 percent higher in D and F hospitals.
The analysis estimates that 33,459 lives could be saved if every hospital improved their safety record to A standards. Still, the study estimates 43,903 avoidable deaths in A hospitals each year.
Patch has reached out to Leapfrog for more information, and we'll let you know when we hear back.
Leapfrog releases its rankings twice a year.
“It is time for every hospital in America to put patient safety at the top of their priority list, because tens of thousands of lives are stake,” Leapfrog President Leah Binder said in a press release. “The Hospital Safety Score alerts consumers to the dangers, but as this analysis shows, even A hospitals are not perfectly safe.”
Leapfrog also conducted an analysis with researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine's Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality. They estimated that 206,021 avoidable deaths occur each year in U.S. hospitals.
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