PORTLAND, Ore. — When 87-year-old Mary was rushed into surgery at Kaiser Permanente Sunnyside Medical Center, she was in the throes of a major stroke that held a firm grip on her ability to walk and talk.
In just 25 minutes, Jeremy Fields, MD, director of Interventional Neuroradiology at Sunnyside Medical Center, threaded a catheter through Mary’s femoral artery then skillfully maneuvered an instrument to snag and remove a clot that had been blocking blood flow to her brain.
Remarkably, she began showing significant improvement in just a few minutes and fully recovered the following day.
“When I saw her a week later, she was in a hurry to drive to her great grandson’s soccer game,” remarked Dr. Fields, admittedly awed by his patient’s ability to thrive after such an ordeal.
This is one among many examples of care excellence that places Sunnyside Medical Center on a newly released report recognizing the nation’s best hospitals at providing high-quality, innovative expert care. The Leapfrog Group — a national watchdog organization that compares hospitals’ performance on U.S. standards of safety, quality, and efficiency — today named Kaiser Permanente Sunnyside Medical Center as a “Top Hospital” in Oregon.
Kaiser Permanente Sunnyside Medical Center was named “Top General” hospital in Oregon.
In order to be on the list, a Top Hospital must have fulfilled rigorous performance standards for high-risk procedures, and attained outstanding success in areas such as instituting stringent safety practices and reducing infection and mortality rates for common procedures. Hospitals must also fully meet Leapfrog’s standards for implementing computer physician order entry systems.
“Sunnyside Medical Center’s outstanding performance in The Leapfrog Group’s Top Hospital ratings reflects the successful outcomes that come from providing care within an integrated, coordinated health care model,” said Justin Evander, chief operating officer, Kaiser Permanente Sunnyside Medical Center. “Our members not only achieve the best health outcomes, but are also able to get back to those things they love doing most, such as attending a great grandson’s soccer game, or a family wedding.”
“Our hospitals are among the very best in the nation because our care teams are committed to doing what’s best for the member, keeping them safe, and providing the highest quality care,” said Janet O’Hollaren, chief operating officer, Northwest, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals. “Our highly skilled physicians, nurses and staff, work collaboratively as one team focused on the health and well-being of our members.”
The annual Top Hospital list is a prestigious group of U.S. medical centers. While more than 1,800 hospitals completed the Leapfrog survey and were considered for the recognition, only 115 (about 6 percent) were named to the list.
The Top Hospitals quality designation is the most recent in a string of national accolades given to Kaiser Permanente Northwest in the past few months:
- Leapfrog’s Hospital Safety Grade. In October, 22 Kaiser Permanente hospitals, Sunnyside and Westside Medical Centers received “A” grades in Leapfrog’s semiannual ratings, eight more than during the previous grading period.
- Medicare Star Quality Ratings. For 2017, Kaiser Permanente Northwest was the only Medicare health plan to receive an overall rating of 5 stars, the highest rating from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Kaiser Permanente Northwest’s Medicare plan has been rated 5 stars for six consecutive years.
- NCQA Quality Compass dataset for commercial measures. According to the 2016 National Committee for Quality Assurance report, Kaiser Permanente is the highest rated health plan in 21 of the 48 effectiveness-of-care measures. More than 500 U.S. plans are considered. This is the eighth successive year Kaiser Permanente has had more No.1s than any other health plan.
- J.D. Power Member Satisfaction Study. In the 2016 study, Kaiser Permanente members in five geographic areas rated their health plan highest in satisfaction.
To view the complete list of Leapfrog’s 2016 “Top Hospitals,” visit the group’s website, www.leapfroggroup.org.
About Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America’s leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, our mission is to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve more than 10.6 million members in eight states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the-art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health. For more information, go to: kp.org/share.
