Sacramento, CA – California Health and Human Services Agency (CalHHS) Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly, along with Cal Hospital Compare, recognized hospitals across California today for their high performance caring for patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) and patient safety.
- 100 hospitals met performance standards in opioid care.
- 72 hospitals met performance standards in patient safety.
- 30 hospitals met performance standards for opioid stewardship, and patient safety.
“Improving access to high quality care in hospitals is an ongoing process,” said CalHHS Secretary Dr. Ghaly. “Through its annual Opioid Care and Patient Safety Honor Rolls, Cal Hospital Compare helps us to celebrate hospitals doing excellent work and show where improvement is needed. Given the amount of changes hospitals have endured over the last few years recovering from the COVID pandemic, from re-building their workforce to navigating financial uncertainty, it’s even more important to celebrate their progress. Especially, the thirty hospitals that achieved recognition on both the Opioid Care, and Patient Safety Honor Rolls.”
| Hospitals achieving Cal Hospital Compare’s Opioid Care and Patient Safety Honor Rolls | |
| Adventist Health Glendale | Eisenhower Health Hospital |
| Adventist Health Ukiah Valley | Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian |
| Dignity Health Northridge Hospital Medical Center | Kaiser Permanente San Rafael Medical Center |
| Dignity Health Bakersfield Memorial Hospital | Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento Medical Center |
| Dignity Health French Hospital Medical Center | Marshall Medical Center |
| Dignity Health Mercy General Hospital | PIH Health Downey Hospital |
| Dignity Health Mercy Medical Center Merced | Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center |
| Dignity Health Mercy Medical Center Mount Shasta | Salinas Valley Health |
| Dignity Health Mercy San Juan Medical Center | Scripps Green Hospital |
| Dignity Health Methodist Hospital of Sacramento | Scripps Memorial Hospital – Encinitas |
| Dignity Health Sequoia Hospital | Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center |
| Dignity Health Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital | Sharp Grossmont Hospital |
| Dignity Health St. Bernardine Medical Center | Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital |
| Dignity Health St. Elizabeth Community Hospital | UC San Diego Health’s Hillcrest medical campus |
| Dignity Health Woodland Memorial Hospital | UC San Diego Health’s La Jolla medical campus |
“Cal Hospital Compare is proud to contribute to the statewide effort to make high quality hospital care available to all Californians by evaluating hospitals in the important areas of opioid care, and patient safety, while offering a roadmap for change,” said Dr. Bruce Spurlock. Executive Director of Cal Hospital Compare. “We’ve heard from patients that they want access to stigma free, safe care so we invite all California hospitals to use these honor rolls as a tool to evaluate their own performance and benchmark against other hospitals.”
Opioid Care: For the past 5 years, California has recognized hospitals for their progress identifying and treating patients with OUD. In recognition of their work in 2023, 157 hospitals voluntarily reported their progress on their opioid stewardship activities from appropriate opioid discharge prescribing practices, medication for addiction treatment (MAT) programs, harm reduction services, steps to reduce stigma, and ways they involve patient and families in the decision-making process. This year marks the highest number of Opioid Care Honor Roll applications, which is a signal that more and more hospitals are taking active steps to address substance misuse in their communities.
Of these hospitals, we congratulate 100 hospitals for making this year’s honor roll in one or more of the following performance categories: superior performance, excellent progress, sustained improvement over a two-year period, and most improved. However, participation alone is a signal to California’s healthcare community that all 157 hospitals are actively accelerating and strengthening their opioid stewardship programs.
Participating hospitals have achieved tremendous progress in a relatively short period of time. This level of progress is due in large part to their commitment to hiring Navigators to support their opioid stewardship activities. Navigators facilitate MAT and referrals to ongoing treatment for substance use and mental health services. “Tri-City Medical Center in San Diego was able to achieve the highest level of recognition in the Opioid Care Honor Roll program, Superior Performance, with support from their dedicated Navigator and physician champion. Their 24-point improvement from last year is record breaking,” said Dr. Spurlock.
“We encourage all hospitals to participate in the annual Opioid Care Honor Roll program so they can keep pace with emerging best practices,” said Dr. Ghaly.
“In future years, Cal Hospital Compare plans to expand the program and self-assessment tool to address other commonly abused substances. Identification, treatment, and harm reduction are core to addressing addiction and mental health issues in our communities, and saving lives,” said Dr. Spurlock.
Patient Safety: For the past 5 years, California has recognized hospitals for their progress in providing high quality care. Safety is an expectation most patients and families have when they receive care in the hospital. Therefore, the Patient Safety Honor Roll uses objective, publicly available patient safety measures to evaluate hospitals across a variety of domains including hospital acquired infections, adverse patient safety events, sepsis management, patient experience, and Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade.
The 2024 Patient Safety Honor Roll recognizes 72 adult, acute care hospitals with high safety profiles in comparison to other hospitals. The 72 hospitals represent just 24% of the 306 adult, acute care hospitals considered for the honor roll. This honor roll offers Californians a rigorously evaluated list of hospitals that have consistently demonstrated a strong culture of safety across multiple departments and offers hospitals yet another valuable tool to evaluate and celebrate their own performance in comparison to others. Of the hospitals making this year’s Patient Safety Honor Roll, 80% have achieved honor roll status two years in a row. This indicates these hospitals fostered a culture of safety throughout the hospital, thereby allowing their providers and staff to be always engaged in improving and sustaining various patient safety metrics hospital wide.
“Since the inception of the program, 32 hospitals have been recognized on the Patient Safety Honor Roll for their consistent performance. This is an amazing accomplishment and a testament to their ability to create a learning culture centered on keeping patients safe, “said Dr. Spurlock.
While the Patient Safety Honor Roll is an excellent indicator of patient safety, Cal Hospital Compare appreciates that measurement of patient safety is complex and there is no single validated method for measuring the overall safety of care provided in a given health care setting. Therefore, Cal Hospital Compare recognizes hospitals excluded from this year’s Patient Safety Honor Roll are still capable of providing high quality care to patients. Bright spots in performance can occur in any area of a hospital (example bright spots may include orthopedic surgery, maternity services, or cancer care).
For more details on the Opioid Care and Patient Safety Honor Rolls, access the FAQs on the Cal Hospital Compare website.
For more than a decade, Cal Hospital Compare has been providing Californians with objective hospital performance ratings. Cal Hospital Compare is a nonprofit organization governed by a multistakeholder board that includes representatives of hospitals, purchasers, consumer groups, and health plans. It uses an open and collaborative process to aggregate public data and establish relevant measures and scoring.