Salinas Valley Health Receives "A" for Patient Safety - Third Consecutive "A" Grade

Media Contact: Karina Rusk
831-759-1843

Salinas Valley Health (Salinas Valley Health) is once again receiving national recognition for its commitment to patient safety. The Leapfrog Group, an independent national nonprofit organization announced this week it awarded Salinas Valley Health an “A” grade in the Spring 2016 Hospital Safety Score, which rates how well hospitals protect patients from errors, injuries and infections. Salinas Valley Health also received an “A” in both the Spring and Fall 2015 survey results.

“The culture of safety and quality in this organization is consistently recognized by independent third party organizations,” says Pete Delgado, President/CEO of Salinas Valley Health. “We received the highest grade possible because day in and day out, our physicians, nurses and entire staff diligently focus on patient care.”

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 a panel of leading experts on patient safety, including physicians from Stanford University and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. The Leapfrog Group releases the Hospital Safety Scores twice a year to represent a hospital’s overall capacity to keep patients safe from preventable harm.

The study analyzed more than 2,500 general hospitals nationwide and less than one-third received an “A” grade. The analysis was led by Matt Austin, Ph.D, Assistant Professor at the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality and the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The analysis concluded an estimated 33,439 lives could be saved each year if all hospitals had the same performance as those receiving an A.

The April 2016 update highlights newly-added patient experience measures shown in the research to have a relationship to improved patient safety outcomes. These include results of patient surveys about: communication about medicines, communication about discharge, nurse communication, doctor communication, and responsiveness of hospital staff. Additionally, for the first time, the Score includes two new infection measures, MRSA Bacteremia and C.difficile.

For more information about the A score received at Salinas Valley Health or to view the list of state rankings, visit www.hospitalsafetyscore.org.