Hospitals

What is the Best Hospital in Washington State?

Seattle’s Virginia Mason Medical Center is the safest hospital in Washington.

That conclusion — based on a computer analysis of patient treatment records at all hospitals in the state — didn’t surprise anyone in the healthcare business.

It also lent credence to the data analysis, since Virginia Mason gets regular kudos for safety from national organizations like The Leapfrog Group in Washington D.C., and even from its competitors.

“We would like to be like Virginia Mason as one of the premiere quality hospitals,” said Sharon Jenkins, administrator for quality management for Tacoma General Hospital, which ranked low in the same study.

When it came to naming the lower ranked hospitals, some eyebrows were elevated. Though nearly every hospital in Washington regularly uses the same data to judge their own performances internally, some hospital officials didn’t approve of its use to compare hospitals.

“This data is a good starting point for hospitals to look for quality improvement (internally),” said Shelly Pricco, director of patient services at Enumclaw Regional Hospital, which rated lower. “But there’s a lot more that goes on behind the scenes before you can say the hospital has a problem.”

Eight hospitals on the lower “watch list”, besides Tacoma General and Enumclaw Regional, were Cascade Valley Hospital in Arlington, Deaconess Medical Center in Spokane, Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Highline Medical Center in Burien, University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle, and Valley Hospital and Medical Center in Spokane Valley.

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