Cal Hospital Compare Recognizes Prime Healthcare Hospitals For Excellence in Patient Safety and Maternity Care

Hospitals Among Small Group of 36 to Surpass Performance Standards

(ONTARIO, Calif. – December 24, 2019) – Five Prime Healthcare hospitals have received awards for excellence in patient safety and maternity care from the California Health and Human Services Agency and Cal Hospital Compare, further recognition of Prime’s continuing success in providing superior health care to communities throughout the state and nation.

Centinela Hospital Medical Center, Desert Valley Hospital, San Dimas Community Hospital, Chino Valley Medical Center and Sherman Oaks Hospital were recently awarded Patient Safety Honor Roll status by the independent state evaluators. To obtain honor roll status, hospitals have to rank above their peers in categories such as hospital acquired infections, adverse patient safety events, sepsis management and patient experience.

Only 36 hospitals in California met performance standards in both maternity care and patient safety. Centinela ranks among those hospitals. In addition to patient safety recognition, the hospital was awarded Maternity Honors for meeting and surpassing the statewide target of reducing the number of births via C-section in first-time mothers with low-risk pregnancies. Overuse of cesarean sections has been found to result in higher complications for mothers, such as hemorrhage and blood clots, while increasing the chances babies will develop infections and respiratory complications, among other issues.

“Improving the quality of patient care in hospitals is critically important,” said California Health and Human Services Agency Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly. “These annual measurements through Cal Hospital Compare allow us to acknowledge hospitals doing excellent work and also inform hospitals when improvement is needed.”

The awards are the latest recognition of excellence for the hospitals of Prime Healthcare, one of the largest health systems in the United States. Prime Healthcare has been consistently recognized for preserving access to high-quality care through the 45 hospitals under its ownership nationwide.

“Prime Healthcare remains committed to providing the highest quality health care to communities throughout the country, and we’re proud of these latest recognitions from our home state of California,” said Sunny Bhatia, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Prime Healthcare and Sherman Oaks Hospital. “Prime is dedicated to implementing best practices, investing in new technology and facilities, and achieving national and state patient safety goals. Thank you to our clinical teams and staff for their commitment to providing the most appropriate care to each and every patient.”

Cal Hospital Compare is a nonprofit organization that has been providing Californians with objective hospital ratings for more than a decade. Each year, the organization evaluates publicly available data to carefully compare hospital performance.

Cal Hospital Compare uses an algorithmic method based on individual hospital performance across 12 patient safety measures and Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades in determining Patient Safety Honor Roll status. In addition, for the past four years, the state has recognized hospitals that meet the target C-section rates of 23.9 percent of low-risk, first-time births.

For more information on individual honor rolls and recipients, please visit the Cal Hospital Compare website.