Natividad Medical Center Gets "F" Safety Grade While CHOMP & Salinas Valley Memorial Hospitals Get "A" Grades

Natividad Medical Center is once again in the press with an unflattering story about the hospital getting an "F" grade on hospital safety for the third time in the past two years (the ratings are done twice per year).  The grading came from the Leapfrog Group's Hospital Safety Score report which grades hospitals based on 28 different safety measures relatable to preventable harm.  Some of these include infection rates, protocols to prevent medical errors, nurse staffing and education.  The hospital scored the lowest rating in the nation in all five elements of the category involving staff actions to improve safety during surgery and gauging access to specially trained doctors caring for ICU patients.  A Natividad spokesman said that the poor showing was due to Leapfrog using old data and the hospital not responding to their survey.  They said that looking at data from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services would give consumers a better handle on how the hospital is doing.  However, one person told the Herald that Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula (CHOMP) also does not participate in the survey but received an "A" grade.  Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital and Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz also got "A" grades while Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital in Hollister received a "C" grade.  Roughly 1% of the hospitals that Leapfrog analyzed received an "F" grade.