HealthGrades, which conducts annual studies of hospital quality, has released its 2010 Patient Safety Excellence Awards. This study looked at patient safety indicators from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to identify the patient safety incidence rates for every nonfederal hospital in the country using three years of Medicare data (2006-08).

In the study, 40 million hospitalization records from nearly 5,000 hospitals were analyzed to understand the incidence rates of 15 different patient safety events, from postoperative sepsis to complications from anesthesia.

For hospitals identified in the top 5% in the nation, Medicare patients, on average, were 43% less likely to experience a patient safety event during the years 2006 to 2008.

HealthGrades also created a composite score to identify the best-performing hospitals in the U.S. from 2006 through 2008. The full study can be found at HealthGrades.com. The following regional hospitals were recognized with the HealthGrades 2010 Patient Safety Excellence Award:

Arizona

Arrowhead Hospital — Glendale

Verde Valley Medical Center — Cottonwood

West Valley Hospital — Goodyear

Yavapai Regional Medical Center-West — Prescott

California

Bakersfield Memorial Hospital — Bakersfield

Desert Valley Hospital — Victorville

Eisenhower Medical Center — Rancho Mirage

Garfield Medical Center — Monterey Park

Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian — Newport Beach

Marian Medical Center — Santa Maria

Mercy General Hospital — Sacramento

Mercy San Juan Medical Center — Carmichael

Queen of the Valley — Napa

Saint Elizabeth Community Hospital — Red Bluff

Saint Johns Hospital Health Center — Santa Monica

Saint Vincent Medical Center — Los Angeles

Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital — Santa Barbara

Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center — Chula Vista

Sharp Memorial Hospital — San Diego (including Thc San Diego)

Oregon

Mercy Medical Center — Roseburg

Providence Saint Vincent Medical Center — Portland

Rogue Valley Medical Center — Medford

Sacred Heart Medical Center-University District — Eugene

Saint Charles Medical Center — Bend

Washington

Central Washington Hospital — Wenatchee

Good Samaritan Hospital and Rehabilitation Center — Puyallup

Holy Family Hospital — Spokane

Northwest Hospital & Medical Center — Seattle

Overlake Hospital Medical Center — Bellevue

Providence Regional Medical Center — Everett

Sacred Heart Medical Center — Spokane

St. Joseph Hospital — Bellingham

Tacoma General Allenmore Hospital — Tacoma

Virginia Mason Medical Center — Seattle