Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center Awarded an “A” for Patient Safety by Hospital Safety Score

Pomona, CA (PRWEB) June 20, 2012

Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center (PVHMC) was recently honored with an “A” Hospital Safety Score by The Leapfrog Group, an independent national nonprofit run by employers and other large purchasers of health benefits. The Hospital Safety ScoreSM was calculated under the guidance of The Leapfrog Group’s Blue Ribbon Expert Panel using publicly available data on patient injuries, medical and medication errors, and infections. U.S. hospitals were assigned an A, B, C, D, or F for their safety.

“It is an honor to be awarded this outstanding Hospital Safety Score of an 'A' by The Leapfrog Group,” said Richard E. Yochum, president/CEO of Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center. “Patient safety is a top priority throughout this organization and is at the forefront of everything we do. We invest vast effort to insure that our patients are safe and the care they receive is the same care we would want our own family members to receive should they be hospitalized at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center.”

Tracy Bennett, RN, director of Quality Management at PVHMC, cites the continuous effort the Hospital invests as the reason for the “A” score from The Leapfrog Group.

“Dozens of hospital Associates spend innumerable hours to design systems that prevent medical errors from occurring. Everyone works together to make certain safe practices are implemented in every area of the hospital.

Bennett discussed one of the many committees that focuses on the 26 safety indicators examined by The Leapfrog Group and the Hospital Safety Score.

“For Hospital Acquired Infections Leapfrog especially examined Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections (CLABSI). PVHMC has an interdisciplinary team that includes not only physicians and nurses to examine and monitor CLABSI. The team also includes Infection Prevention Practitioners along with staff from Purchasing, Pharmacy, the Laboratory, Food and Nutrition, and Facilities/Housekeeping. We need to have input from all of these areas within the hospital. We need to know that everyone who interacts with the patient or in the patient’s direct environment is aware of what needs to be done to insure the utmost in patient care and patient safety.”

“It’s The Leapfrog Group’s goal to give patients the information they need and deserve before even entering a hospital,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “We congratulate the hospitals that earned an ‘A’ and we look forward to the day when all hospitals in the U.S. will earn the highest scores for putting patient safety first.”

To see Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center’s scores as they compare nationally and locally, visit http://www.hospitalsafetyscore.org, the Hospital Safety ScoreSM website, which also provides information on how the public can protect themselves and loved ones during a hospital stay.

Calculated under the guidance of The Leapfrog Group’s nine-member Blue Ribbon Expert Panel, the Hospital Safety ScoreSM uses 26 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to produce a single score representing a hospital’s overall capacity to keep patients safe from infections, injuries, and medical and medication errors. The panel includes: John Birkmeyer (University of Michigan), Ashish Jha (Harvard University), Lucian Leape (Harvard University), Arnold Millstein (Stanford University), Peter Pronovost (Johns Hopkins University), Patrick Romano (University of California, Davis), Sara Singer (Harvard University), Tim Vogus (Vanderbilt University), and Robert Wachter (University of California, San Francisco).

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About The Leapfrog Group
The Leapfrog Group (http://www.leapfroggroup.org) is a national organization using the collective leverage of large purchasers of health care to initiate breakthrough improvements in the safety, quality, and affordability of health care for Americans. The flagship Leapfrog Hospital Survey allows purchasers to structure their contracts and purchasing to reward the highest performing hospitals. The Leapfrog Group was founded in November 2000 with support from the Business Roundtable and national funders, and is now independently operated with support from its purchaser and other members.

About Pomona Valley Medical Center Hospital
Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center is a 453-bed, acute care, nationally accredited hospital serving the greater Pomona Valley. It is one of only 332 hospitals in the country to be named a recipient of the HealthGrades 2012 Outstanding Patient Experience Award. PVHMC has also been recognized nationally as a 2011 Thomson Reuters 50 Top Cardio Vascular Hospital (nationally). The Hospital has been a four-time recipient of Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals in the past 16 years. For more information please visit our web site at http://www.pvhmc.org.

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