Survey ranks UCI Medical Center as top hospital

Orange County’s only university hospital, the UCI Medical Center in Orange, has been selected as a 2008 Top Hospital by the Leapfrog Hospital Survey, university officials announced Tuesday.

The survey, which reviews quality and safety, including performance during high-risk procedures, intensive-care-unit staffing and automation of records and orders, reviewed more than 1,200 hospitals nationwide. UCI Medical Center received high marks in several areas, including its ability to prevent medical errors through computer-based information, having staff members properly trained in critical care medicine and hospital employees’ ability to prevent minor and major complications through fundamental safety checks and practices.

The hospital did show room for improvement when it came to keeping patients from developing bed sores and hospital-related injuries such as falling.

The medical center has faced its share of negative press in the past. In late 2004 and early 2005, a number of patients and their families sued the hospital for wrongful death or negligence after it was revealed a number of donated livers for transplants were never used and people on the waiting list died in the meantime.

This year though, the center has received its share of accolades. In July, it was named to the U.S. News & World Report’s Best Hospitals list for the eighth year in a row, and in August it was designated a Magnet school by the American Nurses Credentialing Center.

— Joseph Serna