Santa Rosa Among 27 Kaiser Permanente Hospitals Honored as ‘Top Performer’ in Quality by The Joint Commission

Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa is among twenty-seven Kaiser Permanente Hospitals named this week to the nation’s Top Performers on Key Quality Measures by The Joint Commission, the leading accreditor of health care organizations in the United States. The Kaiser Permanente facilities included in the report were recognized by The Joint Commission for exemplary performance in using evidence-based clinical processes that are shown to improve care for certain conditions, including heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, surgical care, children’s asthma, stroke and venous thromboembolism, as well as inpatient psychiatric services.

Out of the 3,343 eligible facilities submitting accountability measure data to The Joint Commission, the 27 Kaiser Permanente medical centers recognized are one of among 1,099 accredited facilities to meet or exceed the target rates of performance for 2012.

This is the third year of The Joint Commission’s Top Performers report – Kaiser Permanente had 20 facilities ranked in 2012 and 10 ranked in the 2011 report.

"At Kaiser Permanente, we have been – and will continue to be – focused on improving the quality of the care we offer to our more than 9.1 million members," said Kaiser Permanente Chief Executive Officer Bernard J. Tyson. "Our physicians and care teams continue to eliminate variance by using evidence-based protocols that are proven to improve care."

“Kaiser Permanente has had a sustained, concerted focus on improving the care and service experience for members. These efforts are evident in how Kaiser Permanente has progressed from 10 hospitals on the 2011 Top Performers list, to having 27 hospitals on the list today,” said Amy Compton-Phillips, MD, associate executive director, Quality, Kaiser Permanente. “We are proud that the physicians and staff of Kaiser Permanente continue to earn recognition for our high-performing hospitals and that our evidence-based improvements are delivering better care to our members.”

Each of the facilities that were named as a Top Performer on Key Quality Measures met two 95 percent (95/95) performance thresholds on 2012 accountability measure data. First, each facility achieved performance of 95 percent or above on a single, composite score that includes all the accountability measures for which it reports data to The Joint Commission, including measures that had fewer than 30 eligible cases or patients. Second, each facility met or exceeded 95 percent performance on every accountability measure for which it reports data to The Joint Commission, excluding any measures with fewer than 30 eligible cases or patients. A 95 percent score means a facility provided an evidence-based practice 95 times out of 100 opportunities to provide the practice. Each accountability measure represents an evidence-based practice – for example, giving aspirin at arrival for heart attack patients, giving antibiotics one hour before surgery, and providing a home management plan for children with asthma.

“When we raise the bar and provide the proper guidance and tools, hospitals have responded with excellent results,” says Mark R. Chassin, MD, FACP, MPP, MPH, president, The Joint Commission. “This capacity for continual improvement points toward a future in which quality and safety defects are dramatically reduced and high reliability is sought and achieved with regularity. Such day-to-day progress will slowly but surely transform today’s health care system into one that achieves unprecedented performance outcomes for the benefit of the patients.”

According to the report, fourteen Kaiser Permanente Northern California hospitals were also honored: Antioch, Fremont/Hayward, Fresno, Manteca/Modesto, Oakland/Richmond, Redwood City, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, San Rafael, Santa Clara, Santa Rosa, South San Francisco, and Vacaville. For purposes of accreditation, The Joint Commission recognizes Fremont/Hayward, Modesto/Manteca and Oakland/Richmond as combined campuses.

Kaiser Permanente Psychiatric Health Facility in Santa Clara, CA, and the Kaiser Foundation Hospital and Rehabilitation Center in Vallejo, CA, were also included on the list.

Nine Kaiser Permanente Southern California hospitals were on the list: Baldwin Park, Downey, Fontana, Los Angeles, Moreno Valley, Orange County (which includes Anaheim and Irvine medical centers), Panorama City, San Diego, and South Bay.

In addition, Kaiser Permanente’s Hawaii Moanalua Medical Center in Honolulu and Kaiser Sunnyside Medical Center in Clackamas, Oregon were also recognized as Top Performers.

For a complete list of the Top Performers hospitals, as well as the specific measure sets for which each of the 27 hospitals are being recognized, please see The Joint Commission’s “Improving America’s Hospitals” annual report.   http://www.jointcommission.org/accreditation/top_performers.aspx