Community Corner

Stanford Hospital Receives an 'A' Rating from AARP, Leapfrog Group

The local trauma center has received marks for being one of the safest for patients.

A hospital is supposed to make you feel better, and not worse, a healthcare institution ranking system proposes.

An effort between AARP The Magazine and The Leapfrog Group aims to help patients find the hospitals that will also make you safe. In particular, the partnership doesn't look at whether a hospital has the latest surgical equipment or most modern operating rooms. It looks at something more basic—will the hospital itself keep you from getting sick?

The Hospital Safety Score looked at 2618 hospitals nationwide and ranked them "A" through "F." Of these, 56.1 percent received an "A" or a score of 790, and 678 received "B's." El Camino Hospital in Mountain View received one of the 1004 "C's."

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One of the "A's" went to Stanford Hospital and Clinics. The rankings considered "errors, accidents, and injuries" that Stanford publicly reported like foreign objects retained after surgery, accidental tears and cuts from medical treatment and wounds splitting after surgery. The score is based on two years, ranging from July 1, 2009 until June 30, 2011.

According to The Leapfrog Group, the Hospital Safety Score could help patients decide what hospital to visit and how to plan their stay because they demonstrate the steps the hospital staff takes to ensure quality of care.

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"Everybody has a role in improving this terrible problem with safety in American hospitals," says Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, which administers the Hospital Safety Score. "Consumers, patients, families of patients, employers, unions, and hospitals themselves can all make a difference if we resolve here and now to make patient safety a national priority." At least 180,000 patients are killed every year from errors, accidents, injuries, and infections in American hospitals, according to The Leapfrog Group.

There is a moment when even to The Leapfrog Group, these scores should be ignored—in an emergency.

What has your experience been as a patient at Stanford Hospital? What grade would you give the medical care there? Tell us in comments!

More on Palo Alto Patch:

  • Stanford Process Creates Transparent Brain
  • Stanford/Packard Children’s Hospital Land $6.9 Million Grant
  • Stanford: Sugar in Food Supply Linked to Diabetes
  • How Long Is the ER Wait at Peninsula Hospitals? Feds Spill the Beans

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