PORT ANGELES — Consumer Reports ranked Olympic Medical Center No. 1 for patient safety among 34 state hospitals in a new report.
Safety ratings were based on readmissions, complications, communication, overuse of CT scans and infections.
Jefferson Healthcare and Forks Community Hospitals were among the 54 hospitals that were not rated by Consumer Reports.
OMC achieved a safety score of 72 out of 100 for avoiding readmissions and infections, communicating about medications and discharge, appropriate use of chest and abdominal scanning and avoiding serious complications.
Rated hospitals needed to have valid data for all measures used to calculate the score. The data come from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Many smaller hospitals did not have sufficient data for Consumer Reports’ rating categories, according to Consumer Reports.
Rounding out the top five rated hospitals in the state were Central Washington Hospital in Wenatchee (69), Harrison Medical Center in Bremerton (68), Evergreen Hospital Medical Center in Kirkland (66) and Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center in Vancouver (63).
The highest-scoring hospital in the nation was Bellin Memorial Hospital in Green Bay, Wis., with a 74.
Consumer Reports rated 1,159 U.S. hospitals for safety last August.
The average score among the 2,031 hospitals covered in the updated report was 49.
“When it comes to health care, average should never be good enough, and this average is clearly not even close,” said John Santa, M.D., director of the Consumer Reports Health Ratings Center.
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
