Clinical Excellence and Achievements

Achievements and Awards Received by UC San Diego Health System

2012 Achievements 2011 Achievements 2010 and Earlier

Achievements

In 2012, UC San Diego Health System’s Bariatric and Metabolic Institute was recognized as a fully accredited Level 1 Bariatric Surgery Center by the American College of Surgeons Bariatric Surgery Center Network (ACS BSCN). This designation means that the Institute has met the essential criteria that ensures it is fully capable of supporting a bariatric surgery care program and that its institutional performance meets the requirements outlined by the ACS BSCN Accreditation Program.
UC San Diego Health System’s Center for Transplantation was recognized by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as a heart-lung transplant Center of Excellence in September 2012.
UC San Diego Health System’s Birth Center, the only place of its kind on the West Coast where women can have a natural birth experience with minimal medical intervention within a hospital setting, welcomed baby number 4,000 on August 6, 2012.
In April 2012, a UC San Diego Health System surgeon is the first in the United States to successfully implant the new FDA-approved LINX™ Reflux Management System in a patient suffering from gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).
In March 2012, Moores Cancer Center was one of the first oncology practices in the nation to be recognized by the Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPI®) certification program. This is a new initiative to certify oncology practices that meet rigorous standards for high-quality cancer care.
In January 2012, a transplant team at UC San Diego Health System successfully performed the West Coast’s first ex-vivo liver resection.
UC San Diego Health System was bestowed Magnet® status by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) in December 2011. The Magnet Recognition Program recognizes health care organizations for quality patient care, nursing excellence and innovations in nursing practice.

Awards

UC San Diego Health System was ranked among the nation’s best in U.S. News & World Report’s 23rd annual “America’s Best Hospitals” issue. The magazine ranked UC San Diego Health System #1 in the San Diego metropolitan area and #5 in California.
UC San Diego Health System has been ranked in the annual U.S. News & World Report‘s “Best Hospitals” issue for 19 years and is consistently ranked among the best in multiple specialties, including geriatrics (#37), nephrology (#32), pulmonology (#22) and urology (#37). The following specialties were ranked as “high-performing”: cancer, cardiology and heart surgery, diabetes and endocrinology, ear, nose and throat, gastroenterology, gynecology, neurology and neurosurgery, orthopedics, psychiatry and rheumatology.
UC San Diego Medical Center, located in Hillcrest, was named one of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals® by Thomson Reuters and was also one of 12 hospitals to receive the Everest Award. This award honors hospitals that have achieved both the highest level of current performance, as well as the fastest long-term improvement over a five-year period in Reuters’ national benchmarking study.
UC San Diego Health System was named among the Hospital of Choice Awards Top 100 for 2012 by the American Alliance of Healthcare Providers (AAHCP).
UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center received the American Cancer Society (ACS) Healthcare Partner of the Year Award.
UC San Diego Health System was recognized as a “Leader in LGBT Healthcare Equality” in the Healthcare Equality Index 2012 report, an annual survey conducted by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation. ( LGBT: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender)
UC San Diego Health System twice received an “A” rating from The Leapfrog Group’s Hospital Safety Score™. The Leapfrog Group uses publicly available data on patient injuries, medical errors and infections to letter grade the safety performance of more than 2,600 hospitals nationwide. An “A” rating represents our overall performance in keeping patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors.
UC San Diego Health System was named a Pay for Performance (P4P) Top Overall Performer Organization by the Integrated Healthcare Association (IHA) for the fourth consecutive year. As one of only 47 physician organizations selected for recognition as a Top Overall Performer, our overall performance score surpassed a statewide threshold based on the top 25 percent score for each P4P quality measure. We ranked in the top 10 out of 200 physician organizations in California in four clinical measures, including #1 in Diabetes Care Nephropathy Monitoring.
UC San Diego Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center was named one of the nation’s 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals for 2013 by Truven Health Analytics.
UC San Diego Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center ranked #10 in Soliant Health Care’s annual list of top 20 most beautiful hospitals in the United States.
UC San Diego Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center received Modern Healthcare’s highest design honor, the 2012 Modern Healthcare Design Award. Out of more than one hundred entries, only one other facility received this honor in 2012.
UC San Diego Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center is the first hospital-based facility in the region to receive LEED Gold certification from the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). LEED — Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design — promotes a “whole-building” approach to sustainability. A LEED-certified health care facility promotes good health by combining energy conservation techniques with the very best care available.
UC San Diego Health System had 122 physicians named as “Top Docs” in San Diego Magazine’s “Physicians of Exceptional Excellence” annual survey performed in collaboration with the San Diego County Medical Society. These physicians represent 35 different specialties.
For seven consecutive years, UC San Diego Health System has been among the nation’s “Most Wired” hospitals, and for four years, one of the 25 “Most Wireless,” according to Hospitals & Health Networks, a publication of the American Hospital Association.
UC San Diego achieved Gold level recognition as a Fit-Friendly Company by the American Heart Association.
UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center is the only hospital in San Diego to be featured in Becker’s Hospital Review list of “70 Hospitals and Health Systems with Great Oncology Programs”. According to review editors for Becker’s Hospital Review, the hospitals and health systems on the list are “considered leaders in cutting-edge cancer treatment, prevention and research” and were chosen “based on clinical accolades, quality care and contributions to the field of oncology.” Ten California hospitals made the list, five of which are University of California-based medical centers.
UC San Diego Health System’s pulmonary thromboendarterectomy (PTE) program was among the 11 specialties selected as “Centers of Excellence” at the annual CHEST conference, hosted by the American College of Chest Physicians.

Achievements

In December 2011, The Joint Commission approved Disease Specific Care (DSC) certification for Ventricular Assist Device (VAD) at UC San Diego Health System. Fewer than 110 facilities are approved for VAD destination therapy. UC San Diego Health System is one of only two San Diegobased systems and eight California-based systems offering this option.
UC San Diego Health System achieved Stage 7 of electronic medical record (EMR) adoption — a ranking devised by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Analytics group. This was achieved by only 1.1 percent of hospitals in the United States in 2011.
UC San Diego Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center officially opened its doors in August 2011 as San Diego’s first and only dedicated cardiovascular center combining groundbreaking research and lifesaving care under one roof. It is home to San Diego’s first hybrid operating room that can simultaneously perform coronary artery bypass graft surgery and coronary artery stenting.
UC San Diego Health System performed the West Coast’s first implant of the world’s only FDAapproved total artificial heart in a four-hour procedure in January 2011.

Awards

UC San Diego Health System was ranked #1 in San Diego in U.S. News & World Report’s first-ever “Best Hospitals” metro rankings. To be ranked in its metro area, a hospital had to score in the top 25 percent among its peers in at least one of 16 medical specialties. This prestigious ranking recognizes UC San Diego Health System as a leader in delivering groundbreaking health care to Southern California.
UC San Diego Health System has been ranked in the annual U.S. News & World Report‘s “Best Hospitals” issue for 18 years and is consistently ranked among the best in multiple specialties. In 2011, six specialties were recognized: cancer, diabetes, nephrology, orthopedics, psychiatry and pulmonology. Only 140 facilities — fewer than three percent of the 4,825 facilities analyzed for this year’s “Best Hospitals” rankings — ranked in any specialty.
UC San Diego Health System was one of 65, out of a field of nearly 1,200 hospitals, to be named a “Top Hospital” by The Leapfrog Group, based on the Leapfrog Hospital Survey — a gold standard for comparing hospitals’ performance in quality and patient safety.
UC San Diego Health System received the Urban League of San Diego County’s 2011 Corporate Diversity Award. It is given to an organization that has made a significant contribution to the ideals of diversity through community engagement, social responsibility and employment practices.
UC San Diego Health System was named a winner of the 2011 University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC) Quality Leadership Award, which honors top performers in the areas of quality, effectiveness, safety, equity, patient-centeredness and efficiency, in UHC’s Quality and Accountability Study.
UC San Diego Health System received the American College of Cardiology Foundation’s National Cardiovascular Data Registry (NCDR) ACTION Registry® “Get with the Guidelines” Gold distinction for four consecutive years.
UC San Diego Medical Group received the Integrated Healthcare Association’s (IHA) Top Overall Physician Performing Organization award for the third year in a row, based on performance in select health care quality measures, including preventive and chronic care management, patient satisfaction and use of IT to support safer, more effective care. The Medical Group also received honorable mentions in “Diabetes Care” and “IT-Enabled Systemness.”
UC San Diego Health System had 129 physicians in 39 specialties named among the best doctors in San Diego County in San Diego Magazine’s “Physicians of Exceptional Excellence” survey performed in collaboration with the San Diego County Medical Society.

Achievements

In 2010, UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center was designated a Breast Imaging Center of Excellence by the American College of Radiology, a designation given to fewer than 6 percent of the imaging centers in California.
In 2010, the Joint Commission awarded UC San Diego Health System’s Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) Program its Gold Seal of Approval for health care quality, making it the first program of its kind in the nation to receive this disease-specific certification.
In 2009, the Breast Center at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center became the first hospital-based program in California to receive accreditation from the National Accreditation Program of Breast Centers, a program administered by the American College of Surgeons.
In 2008, surgeons at our Center for the Future of Surgery were the first in the United States to remove an appendix and a gallbladder through the mouth. UC San Diego Health System is leading the way in minimally invasive surgery techniques, such as natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES).
In 2004, UC San Diego Health System’s Stroke Center became the first in San Diego to receive a Gold Seal from The Joint Commission.
In 2001, UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center was designated as a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute. Moores Cancer Center is now the only NCI-approved comprehensive cancer center in San Diego and one of only 41 in the nation.

Awards

UC San Diego Health System received a $15.3 million Beacon Community Collaborative award on behalf of a broad collaboration of San Diego health care providers and other community partners — one of only 17 communities across the country selected for this award, designed to pilot the widescale use of health information technology and health information exchanges (HIE) to improve quality of care and efficiency.
UC San Diego Health System was honored as one of the top 15 teaching hospitals in the country by Thomson Reuters.
UC San Diego Health System had 86 physicians named in San Diego Magazine’s “Physicians of Exceptional Excellence” survey performed in collaboration with the San Diego County Medical Society.
UC San Diego Health System was named a Designated Hospital by Nurses Improving Care for Healthsystem Elders (NICHE) — the only national geriatric initiative to improve the care of older hospitalized adults.
UC San Diego Health System was selected to participate in the Dr. Foster Elite Global Comparators project — a unique, not-for-profit opportunity for health care organizations in the United States, United Kingdom, Italy and Netherlands to collaborate, share knowledge and participate in groundbreaking research to improve clinical outcomes.

Regional Services Provided by UC San Diego Health System

Area’s only Regional Burn Center, which covers San Diego, Imperial and Riverside Counties and portions of Arizona
Region’s first Level I Trauma Center
Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
Area’s only hospital-based, holistic Birth Center
Owen Clinic, one of America’s top HIV/AIDS care programs
Anne and Abraham Ratner Children’s Eye Center, the region’s only eye facility dedicated to meeting the special needs of children

Affiliations

Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego
Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System
Sharp Memorial Hospital Joint Blood and Marrow Transplant Program

FY2012 Key Statistics of UC San Diego Health System

Number of Employees: 6,125
Annual Discharges: 26,801
Average Daily Census: 420
Emergency Visits: 65,504
Total Outpatient Visits: 572,142
Average Length of Stay: 5.8 days