San Rafael

Thirteen Kaiser Permanente hospitals in Northern California received the top score of “A” by the Leapfrog Group in its biannual safety report, which examined and graded more than 2,500 hospitals throughout the United States.

The Leapfrog Group, an independent national nonprofit run by employers and other large purchasers of health benefits, released its Fall Hospital Safety Scores after examining publicly available data on patient injuries, medical and medication errors and infections at U.S. hospitals, which were then assigned A, B, C, D, or F grades for their safety records.

“These safety scores highlight the high-quality health care that Kaiser Permanente provides to the communities we serve,” said Barbara Crawford vice president, quality and regulatory services, Kaiser Permanente Northern California. “This continued recognition is an honor, and it reflects the skill and dedication of our physicians, nurses and staff on behalf of our patients.”

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Kaiser Permanente offers members many options for connecting with their doctors, including convenient video visit appointments. Video visits helped the Fegraus family through an unfortunate accident with nine-month-old Emma that turned the family’s life upside-down.

It was an unfortunate accident that turned the Fegraus family’s life upside-down. Over breakfast one morning, nine-month old Emma accidentally pulled a cup full of scalding hot tea onto her chest and lap. “I was terrified,” said her mother, Laura.

Emma was rushed to the emergency room at Kaiser Permanente San Rafael Medical Center, where, thankfully, her injuries were deemed non-life threatening. As soon as she was discharged the next morning, Emma’s pediatrician,Richard Dow, MD, quickly made arrangements for renowned burn specialist, Clyde Ikeda, MD based at Kaiser Permanente South San Francisco Medical Center to care for her in the crucial days following the accident.

On the first trip from their home in San Rafael to see Dr. Ikeda, the Fegraus family quickly realized how time-consuming it would be to meet with Dr. Ikeda for all of Emma’s follow-up appointments. “It was stressful because we had an infant with an injury in the car,” said Laura.

Read the full story on the Kaiser Permanente Cares website.
http://kaiserpermanentecarestories.org/emmafegraus/

Early Wednesday morning, staff at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in San Rafael will begin moving patients from the hospital’s existing emergency department to a new, much larger area that opens for business Wednesday. Three years ago, doctors and nurses at the San Rafael medical center implemented new procedures aimed at cutting the waiting time of visitors to the emergency department.

Three years ago, doctors and nurses at the San Rafael medical center implemented new procedures aimed at cutting the waiting time of visitors to the emergency department.

Patricia Kendall, Kaiser medical group administrator, said the new emergency department was tailor-made to facilitate this objective.

“We’re really looking forward to employing the new concept in the new space because we think it will make a big difference,” Kendall said.

The new 17,550-square-foot emergency department, built in a demolished portion of the hospital’s general services building, is approximately three times larger that the existing emergency department. It has two rooms for treating trauma patients, instead of one, and 18 medical treatment stations.

Dr. Gary Mizono, Kaiser physician-in-chief, said all the rooms in the new emergency department will be considerably larger, giving staff the space it needs to improve patient care.

The new facility will also feature rooms near the waiting area, where doctors will move quickly to treat minor complaints such as a rash. These rooms will allow patients to be treated and discharged without being moved into the treatment stations.

Read the full article on the Marin IJ website.
http://www.marinij.com/article/NO/20150518/NEWS/150519798

Armando Topete of San Anselmo wore a smile of relief Saturday morning — even though he awaited being poked and prodded by the medical team down the hall.