Kaiser Permanente in Roseville named one of the nation's top hospitals

Kaiser Permanente Roseville Medical Center today was named a 2013 Leapfrog Top Hospital, an honor that rewards medical centers for outstanding success in such areas as the use of electronic health records to reduce medication and other errors, performance on high-risk surgical procedures, low mortality rates, and appropriate physician staffing.

Only 90 hospitals around the country were named Top Hospitals, out of approximately 1,300 surveyed.

"This is the fourth year in a row that Kaiser Permanente's Roseville Medical Center has been named a 'Top Hospital' due to our clinical quality, patient safety, and patient care experience," said Ed Glavis, senior vice president and area manager, Roseville. "At the same time, we are also making it more convenient for our members and patients to get their care where and when they want it— in outpatient clinics, in their homes, online, and over the phone.”

A total of 10 Kaiser Permanente hospitals in Northern California received the honor.

“Kaiser Permanente’s excellence in clinical care is now the standard that others around the country are striving to achieve,” said Robert Pearl, MD, executive director and CEO of The Permanente Medical Group. “Seamless, integrated, prepaid health care has a demonstrable, major advantage over antiquated, episodic, fee-for-service medicine. As a result of the excellence of our physicians, technology and structure, our members have a 30 percent lower risk of dying from heart disease, a 10 percent lower risk of dying from cancer, and a 40 percent lower chance of dying from sepsis compared to those who are not Kaiser Permanente members. These are remarkable accomplishments and consistent with the Leapfrog Top Hospital designation."

The Leapfrog Group is a coalition of public and private purchasers of employee health coverage founded in 1998 to work for improvements in health care safety, quality and affordability. It is an independent advocacy group working with a broad range of partners, including hospitals and insurers. The annual survey is the only voluntary effort of its kind.

The 2013 list of Top Hospitals includes university and other teaching hospitals, children’s hospitals and community hospitals in rural, suburban and urban settings. The selection is based on the results of the Leapfrog Group’s annual hospital survey, which measures hospitals’ performance on patient safety and quality, addressing areas of hospital care including how patients fare, resource use, and management structures in place to prevent treatment errors. The results of the survey are posted on a website open to patients and families, the public, employers, and other purchasers of health care. The website is http://www.leapfroggroup.org/cp

Leapfrog also updated its hospital safety scores released earlier this year. Twenty of Kaiser Permanente’s hospitals in Northern California received “A” grades, the highest possible.