Five Bay Area Hospitals earned the Clinical Excellence Award from HealthGrades, an independent healthcare ratings organization. El Camino Hospital, in Mountain View, John Muir Medical Center - Concord, John Muir Medical Center - Walnut Creek, Mills-Peninsula Health Services Burlingame, including Mills Health Center in San Mateo, and Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City all scored among the top hospitals in the United States.

Of 5,000 (nonfederal) hospitals in the United States, fewer than 270 (less than 5%) received the recognition. The company evaluates a hospital across 26 diagnoses and procedures, with a hospital needing to have a star rating in at least 19 of the categories. The rating is based on an analysis of 40 million hospital records for procedures and diagnoses from 2006 to 2008

These ratings and a list of specific recipients are available to consumers in order to help them make health care decisions based on the quality of care provided.

The company states in a release that patients in need of a medical procedure who choose to receive their care at a Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence will have a lower risk for an adverse clinical outcome relative to all other hospitals.

According to the company, if all hospitals performed at the level of Distinguished Hospitals, 150,132 Medicare lives could potentially have been saved and 13,104 Medicare inhospital complications could potentially have been avoided. HealthGrades was founded in 1999, and is based in Golden, Colorado.