French Hospital Medical Center Recipient of Recently Announced Nationally Recognized Quality and Safety Awards

Hospital announces it again receives top scores from leading health care rating organizations

SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA – May 1, 2018 – French Hospital Medical Center, a member of Dignity Health Central Coast, is pleased to announce that it has again received an “A” rating from the most recent rating report by The Leapfrog Group, as well as the Women’s Choice Awards®   for Best Hospital for Patient Safety, Best Hospital for Obstetrics, and Best Stroke Center, all of which focus on quality and patient safety. 

The Leapfrog Group, one of the nation’s leading hospital ratings organizations, awards hospitals based on safety, quality of care, and value metrics. French Hospital continues to receive straight A’s for patient safety, and has consecutively since 2012. The Leapfrog Group scores an “A” to hospitals that achieve the best hospital safety performance score, using a set of 28 national measures and provides consumers ranked statistics and informative data for selecting a medical center. The premise of the group is to provide accessibility to the public while allowing medical facilities the opportunity to measure improvements.  Dignity Health actively participates in the program, and the process offers a calculable opportunity for standardized advancements in the care, safety, and quality of our patients.  

Additionally, FHMC is one of only 24 hospitals in California to receive the Women’s Choice Award® as one of America’s Best Hospitals for Patient Safety. This evidence-based designation is the only award that identifies the country’s best healthcare institutions based on robust criteria that consider female patient satisfaction, clinical excellence, and what women say they want from a hospital.

“These publicly reported ratings empower and educate our patients, allowing them to make more informed decisions about the facilities in which they receive their care,” says French Hospital Medical Center President & CEO, Alan Iftiniuk. “Our skilled and robust health care team provides the highest levels of quality and care and we are proud of the recent ratings acknowledging these efforts.”   

Leapfrog’s hospital safety scores are released twice a year and are calculated under the guidance of Leapfrog’s Blue Ribbon Expert Panel.  The ratings represent a hospital’s overall capacity to keep patients safe from preventable harm. A full analysis of the data and methodology used is available at www.hospitalsafetyscore.org. 
         
Dignity Health Central Coast hospitals continuously strive to provide renowned care, advanced technology, and compassion throughout our spectrum of services.  Our commitment to excellence and our levels of skillful practice continue to distinguish us as leaders in the industry.  

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About French Hospital Medical Center
French Hospital Medical Center, located in San Luis Obispo, California, is rated one of the Top 100 Hospitals in the nation and one of the Top 50 Cardiac Hospitals in the nation by Thomson Reuters.  The Copeland, Forbes, and Rossi Cardiac Care Center provides the latest innovative cardiac and imaging technology on the Central Coast. The hospital’s current modernization and redesign project is an example of the commitment to meet the growing needs of the community with lifesaving advancements in medicine coupled with excellent, compassionate care. The hospital is home to the unique Hearst Cancer Resource Center offering free education, resources and support to cancer patients and their families.  French is a Dignity Health member of the Central Coast which also includes Arroyo Grande Community Hospital in Arroyo Grande, CA and Marian Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria, CA. Dignity Health of the Central Coast is an integrated network of top quality hospitals, physicians from the most prestigious medical schools, and comprehensive outpatient services including primary care offices, premier ambulatory surgery centers, technologically-advanced laboratories and imaging centers and a full service home health agency; all recognized for quality, safety and service.  Each hospital is supported by an active philanthropic Foundation to help meet the growing health care needs of our communities.