St. Mary Medical Center of Long Beach as well as Long Beach Memorial Medical Center received A grades for their services according to a report released by a third-party, nonprofit group composed of employers and healthcare experts. Meanwhile, Community Hospital of Long Beach received a B grade while Pacific Hospital of Long Beach received a C grade.
The Leapfrog Group created the Hospital Safety Score to better inform patients of decisions when choosing their healthcare location following the alarming statistic that 1 of 4 Medicare patients leave hospitals with an issue they didn’t walk in with. The score is based upon 26 measurements, ranging from falls and trauma of patients to whether patients are still taking antibiotics after 24 hours.
St. Mary’s received a perfect score, amongst other factors, for its nursing workforce while Long Beach Memorial received a perfect score for its Computerized Prescriber Order Entry (CPOE) system—something which Community ultimately failed at, receiving one of the lowest scores. A CPOE has a doctor enter prescriptions electronically, which a computer then scans against a patient’s background for any potential conflict.
Though also praised for its CPOE system, Pacific Hospital received the worst score possible for safety culture measurement, the main cause for substandard healthcare delivery according to Leapfrog. Safety culture is an umbrella term that encompasses a hospital’s ability to not only prevent harm, but intervene and provide feedback regarding harmful situations.
To read each hospital’s full report cards, click here.