Cal Hospital Compare Gives Scripps Top Marks on 2025 Honor Roll

Cal Hospital Compare (CHC) has announced its 2025 statewide honor roll for hospitals demonstrating leadership in substance use disorder (SUD) services, with Scripps Health hospitals earning more spots atop the list than any other health care provider in San Diego County.

Scripps' four acute-care hospitals - Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla, Scripps Green Hospital, Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas and Scripps Mercy Hospital - were honored in the list's top tier of sustained superior performance. This distinction is reserved for hospitals that have achieved a superior ranking for at least two consecutive years.

CHC launched this program in 2019 as the Opioid Care Honor Roll, with a focus on hospitals that promote safe opioid use, identify patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) and facilitate access to addiction treatment. It expanded the program in 2025 to address the broader issue of SUD, with special attention on managing patients with OUD and alcohol use disorder (AUD). The program is now called the Healthcare Organizations Leading SUD Care Honor Roll.

"Working on the front lines, we see the impact that substance use disorders have on personal health, so it's critical that we continually improve our efforts to provide safety guidance and access to care for our patients," said Scripps Health President and CEO Chris Van Gorder. "We're proud of our teams' ongoing leadership in mapping out pathways to positive change."

The CHC honor roll recognizes Scripps' achievements in promoting safe opioid use practices, harm reduction services, short-term care and navigation to ongoing SUD care to its hospital patients. Scripps does not directly provide continuing care for SUD, but has referral relationships with SUD service providers throughout the community. It is also affiliated with Betty Ford Center as an in-network provider and affiliate in the Scripps Health network.

CHC recognized Scripps for taking a variety of approaches to address SUD among its hospital patients. For example, Scripps has decreased the number of high-dose opioids prescribed at discharge and reduced the number of opioid prescriptions that exceed seven days. It has also achieved strong usage of alternative pain management options, such as non-opioid medications, aromatherapy and music therapy.

Additionally, Scripps continues to offer medication-assisted therapy programs at its hospital emergency departments, where physicians can administer medications such as buprenorphine as a bridge for patients with OUD until they can receive further care in the community.

Scripps has also launched a pilot program to screen patients for AUD, in addition to recently having added fentanyl to its standard multi-drug test panel given to emergency department patients. Such screenings provide vital information that can lead to lifestyle changes, addiction treatment or a prescription for naloxone.

CHC invited all California acute-care hospitals to submit self-assessments to be considered for this year's honor roll, with 133 hospitals participating. Self-assessments covered questions about four domains of care: safe and effective opioid use; identifying and managing patients with SUD; harm reduction strategies; and applying best practices that influence the success of the first three domains.

For the 2025 statewide SUD care honor roll, CHC named 33 hospitals to the sustained superior performance tier; 17 to the superior performance category; and 33 to the excellent progress tier. CHC recognized the remaining hospitals for performance improvement and program participation.

Formerly known as the California Hospital Assessment Task Force, CHC is a nonprofit organization that provides Californians with no-cost, objective hospital performance ratings and publishes annual statewide hospital honor rolls in the areas of patient safety, maternity care and SUD care.