University Healthcare Berkeley Medical Center was again honored with an “A” grade in the Spring 2014 update to the Hospital Safety Score, which rates how well hospitals protect patients from accidents, errors, injuries and infections.
The Hospital Safety Score is compiled under the guidance of the nation’s leading experts on patient safety and is administered by The Leapfrog Group (Leapfrog), an independent industry watchdog. The first and only hospital safety rating to be analyzed in the peer-reviewed Journal of Patient Safety, the Score is designed to give the public information they can use to protect themselves and their families.
“This recognition by The Leapfrog Group further supports the efforts of our Board, administration, physicians, and staff to provide the safest, most advanced, and highest quality healthcare to the patients we serve,” stated Anthony P. Zelenka, president and chief operating officer at Berkeley Medical Center. Berkeley Medical Center had earned the “A” grade in the Fall 2013 Hospital Safety Score.
“As patients begin to take a more active role in selecting where to receive health care, it has never been more important to focus on hospital safety and transparency. The ‘A’ hospitals, including Berkeley Medical Center, are helping us to raise the standards of health care nationwide,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of Leapfrog. “We offer our congratulations and hope the hospital will continue to strive for an ever-increasing level of excellence in patient safety.”
To see Berkeley Medical Center’s scores as they compare nationally and locally, and to find safety tips for patients and their loved ones, visit the Hospital Safety Score website at www.hospitalsafetyscore.org. Local hospitals’ scores are also available on the free mobile app, available at www.hospitalsafetyscore.org.
Calculated under the guidance of Leapfrog’s Blue Ribbon Expert Panel, the Hospital Safety Score uses 28 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to produce a single “A,” “B,” “C,” “D,” or “F” score representing a hospital’s overall capacity to keep patients safe from preventable harm. More than 2,500 general U.S. hospitals were assigned scores. A full analysis of the data and methodology used is available on the Hospital Safety Score website.
The Hospital Safety Scores do not include Critical Access Hospitals, Maryland hospitals, specialty hospitals, mental health hospitals, pediatric hospitals or Federal hospitals. It also does not include hospitals missing data for more than nine process measures or three outcome measures.
