French Hospital Receives Esteemed Patient Safety Excellence Award from Healthgrades

French Hospital Medical Center (FHMC), a member of Dignity Health Central Coast, was recently announced as a recipient of the Patient Safety Excellence Award from Healthgrades, the leading online resource for comprehensive information about hospitals and physicians.

In 2016, there were 466 hospitals across the nation that achieved the Healthgrades Patient Safety Excellence Award.  The recognition places this elite group of hospitals within the top 10% of all hospitals evaluated for their excellent performance in safeguarding patients from serious, potentially preventable complications during their hospital stays. 

“This distinction is a testament to French Hospital Medical Center’s ongoing commitment to providing high-quality care and excellence in patient safety,” says Alan Iftiniuk, President and CEO, French Hospital Medical Center.  “The Patient Safety Excellence Award further exemplifies our dedication to exceptional clinical standards in patient care.” 

Patient Safety Excellence Award recipients were determined by evaluating the occurrence of observed incidents and expected performance for 14 Patient Safety Indicators as defined by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). 

“Our analysis reveals that patient safety is strongly associated with high quality care, so it is vitally important to choose a hospital that performs well on these key indicators,” said Evan Marks, Chief Strategy Officer, Healthgrades. “In addition, we found that consumers are increasingly using patient experience and satisfaction as measures to both evaluate hospitals and to select where they want to obtain care, so hospitals need to listen to patients about what matters most in driving patient evaluations of their hospital.”

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About French Hospital Medical Center

French Hospital Medical Center, located in San Luis Obispo, California, has been named one of the Nation’s 100 Top Hospitals by Truven Health Analytics, and is rated among the top hospitals in the nation for cardiac, orthopedic and GI services. French Hospital has achieved prestigious designation as a Primary Stroke Center by the Joint Commission. The Copeland, Forbes, and Rossi Cardiac Care Center provides the latest innovative cardiac and imaging technology. The hospital is home to the unique Hearst Cancer Resource Center offering free education, resources and support to cancer patients and their families. In addition, an expansion and modernization project is underway at French Hospital, including the new Copeland Health Education Pavilion, which provides the community access to comprehensive health care education resources free of charge.   French is a Dignity Health Central Coast hospital which also includes Arroyo Grande Community Hospital in Arroyo Grande, CA, Marian Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria, CA, St. John’s Regional Medical Center inOxnard, CA and St. John’s Pleasant Valley in Camarillo, CA. Dignity Health 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.

About Healthgrades

Healthgrades, headquartered in Denver, Colorado, is the leading online resource for comprehensive information about physicians and hospitals. Today, more than one million people a day use the Healthgrades websites to search, compare and connect with hospitals and physicians based on the most important measures when selecting a healthcare provider: experience, hospital quality and patient satisfaction. Read more about Healthgrades, or download the Healthgrades iPhone app.