Marian Regional Medical Center gets high rating for safety from ConsumerReports

Posted: Jul 13, 2012 5:02 PM by Farrah Shuaib and Caroline Lowe
Updated: Jul 13, 2012 6:44 PM

A Consumer Reports survey on hospital safety ranks Marian Regional Medical Center in the top 10-percent of hospitals in the country.

The results are in the August edition of the Consumer Reports which rated hospitals on their number of infections, readmissions, communication and scanning. From that data, Consumer Reports gave a composite scores with 100-percent being the top possible score.

Marian received a 61-percent score and tied for 12th place in California.

Marian's Vice President of Medical Affairs, Dr. Chuck Merrill, said teamwork was the key to obtaining the rating.

"These things only happen out of collaboration with nursing staff, administrative staff and medical staff," said Dr. Merrill. "Everyone has to work together and that is why this is a gratifying score."

The highest rated hospital in the country was the Billings Clinic in Montana which scored a 72-percent rating.

Two other Central Coast hospitals were also rated in the survey.

Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara received a 42-percent score and Sierra Vista Medical Regional Center is San Luis Obispo came in at 32-percent.

Both hospitals released statements on Friday to KSBY news regarding the Consumer Reports

safety survey.

A spokesman for Sierra Vista ,Ron Yukelson, said,

"The new patient safety rating from Consumer Reports is the latest effort by a private organization to blend together a complex array of safety and quality data. Not all hospitals report their quality data but because we believe that transparency is an important step in improving patient care, we choose to voluntarily report our quality data. As these reports become more prevalent, it is important for patients to recognize that scoring methods vary by organization and none provide a complete representation of the care provided. Sierra Vista is continually striving to provide our patients with the highest quality of care in the safest possible environment. In the past year, we have won numerous awards and received many acknowledgements and distinctions such as being the only hospital in San Luis Obispo County to be accredited by the Joint Commission for stroke care, the only hospital in San Luis Obispo County to be accredited for mammography by the American College of Radiology, designated a United Healthcare Premium Center for spine surgery and recognized by the American Heart Association for our cardiac care, among many others. These designations are hard earned and validates in a tangible way that Sierra Vista provides quality care to our community."

Cottage Hospital also responded with this statement. "For more than 120 years, Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital has been committed to patient safety, and each of our hospitals continually strives to improve the scores used by the various quality reporting organizations across the country. There is a broad and varied range of measurement tools in all of these reports, and not all are using data from the same time periods or the same criteria. As a Level II trauma center and regional referral center for specialized services, we take care of patients with some of the most complex injuries and life-threatening illnesses, providing the highest level of care between the Los Angeles and Bay areas. We welcome the opportunity to share our quality outcomes as they are available---see our website: cottagehealthsystem.org. We believe these report cards have value for consumers of health care, and we continue to support efforts at transparency," said Janet O'Neill, Director of Public Affairs.

According to Consumer Reports, 1,159 surveys were conducted out of 6,268 hospitals in the United States.