Kaweah Delta Earns Third Consecutive "A" In Hospital Safety

VISALIA – Kaweah Delta Medical Center has earned its third consecutive “A,” the top grade for patient safety in the latest Hospital Safety Score released today. The score rates how well hospitals protect patients from accidents, errors, and injuries, plus also considers patient satisfaction.

“This ‘A’ recognizes the consistent improvements we’ve made in quality of care and patient safety. We’re proud of this honor, but our goal will always be to improve our performance in the future for our patients,” said Lindsay Mann, Chief Executive Officer of Kaweah Delta Health Care District.

Kaweah Delta is one of 798 hospitals across the country who received As in Leapfrog’s Hospital Safety Score. A total of 2,571 hospitals were assigned scores in the Spring 2016 Hospital Safety Score Update. Hospitals were assigned a letter grade from A through F with rankings published at www.hospitalsafetyscore.org.

Kaweah Delta was awarded As in Leapfrog’s two most recent reports published in May 2015 and October 2015. The Visalia-based hospital has raised its safety score through a variety of initiatives that educated staff about best practices for patient safety. Clinical leadership and frontline staff implemented best practices to reduce surgical complications. Additionally, staff members have continued safe practices such as work to prevent hospital acquired infections, pressure ulcers, falls and more, said Sandra Volchko, Director of Performance Improvement and Patient Safety at Kaweah Delta.

“It’s up to us to have processes in place, and we do, to make sure that when patients come into the hospital they don’t leave with something such as an infection or injury. We wouldn’t be an ‘A’ without those,” Volchko said.

The Hospital Safety Score is the gold standard rating for patient safety, compiled under the guidance of the nation’s leading patient safety experts and administered by The Leapfrog Group (Leapfrog), an independent industry watchdog. The only hospital safety rating to be peer-reviewed in the Journal of Patient Safety, the score is free to the public and designed to give consumers information they can use to protect themselves and their families when facing a hospital stay.

Kaweah Delta’s A grade validates its achievement in preventing harm within the hospital, according to Leapfrog. Developed under the guidance of Leapfrog’s Blue Ribbon Expert Panel, the Hospital Safety Score uses 30 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to produce a single A, B, C, D, or F score. This score represents a hospital’s overall capacity to keep patients safe from preventable harm.

The Hospital Safety Score is fully transparent, offering a full analysis of the data and methodology used in determining grades on the website. To see Kaweah Delta’s score, visit www.hospitalsafetyscore.org.