UC San Diego Health System is proud to receive the 2011 UHC Quality Leadership Award. This national award is given to academic medical centers that demonstrate excellence in delivering high-quality care as measured by the UHC Quality & Accountability Study, which has been conducted by the consortium annually since 2005.
UC San Diego Health System is led by CEO, Tom Jackiewicz.
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UC San Diego Health System is led by CEO, Tom Jackiewicz.
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“This is an incredible accomplishment for UC San Diego Health System,” said Tom Jackiewicz, Health System CEO. “In a single year, our ranking jumped from 13th to fifth in the nation. This is a clear indicator that our current quality initiatives are making a positive, comprehensive impact on patients who arrive here from the U.S. and around the world.”
UC San Diego Health System is the region’s only academic health system and is comprised of world-class centers including UC San Diego Medical Center-Hillcrest, Thornton Hospital, Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center, Moores Cancer Center and Shiley Eye Center.
“UC San Diego Health System has achieved outstanding clinical outcomes by engaging interdisciplinary teams in providing safe and reliable care within an environment of enhanced communication,” said Angela Scioscia, MD, chief medical officer. “Our institutional commitment to transparency and achieving excellence underlies all of our efforts.”
By utilizing multiple communication platforms, UC San Diego Health System has developed a distinct culture focused on the patient experience. Evidence of these efforts includes Caring Rounds – a program in which hospital leaders personally round on patients, electronic quality dashboards, paperless systems for medical records, and extensive use of “UCSD Anywhere,” its telemedicine program.
Andrea Snyder, quality officer, points out that safe quality care is a system-wide priority for every clinical team every day. She cites decreased hospital-acquired pressure ulcers, central line infections and risk-adjusted mortality as standout indicators for improved care.
“Key drivers for success have been our innovations in resuscitation and rapid response teams, comprehensive infection prevention, and robust clinical documentation improvement,” said Snyder.
This year, 101 UHC member institutions were included in the analysis. UC San Diego Health System shared the recognition with nine other academic medical centers including Mayo Clinic Rochester and Emory Healthcare.
“The efforts of these 10 hospitals in improving patient care and operational effectiveness distinguish them as leaders,” said Irene M. Thompson, UHC president and chief executive officer. “Being named a UHC Quality Leadership Award winner is a testament to everyone at the hospital—from the executives and board members to the physicians to the nurses and support staff. Earning this distinction is truly a team effort.”
UHC’s distinctive Quality & Accountability Study was designed to help AMCs identify structures and processes associated with high performance in quality and safety across a broad spectrum of patient care activity. Its analysis relies on data from the UHC Clinical Data Base/Resource Manager™, UHC Core Measures Data Base, and the publicly-reported Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems.
The Institute of Medicine’s six domains of care—mortality, effectiveness, safety, equity, patient centeredness, and efficiency—were again used as a guide in structuring the study.
About UHC
UHC is an alliance of the nation’s leading nonprofit academic medical centers, which are focused on delivering world-class patient care. Based in Chicago, Ill, UHC fosters collaboration with and among its 114 academic medical center and 255 affiliated hospital members through its renowned programs and services in the areas of comparative data and analytics, performance improvement, supply chain management, strategic research, and public policy. UHC helps its members achieve excellence in quality, safety, and cost-effectiveness. Formed in 1984, UHC’s membership includes more than 90 percent of the nonprofit academic medical centers in the United States. For more information, visit uhc.edu.
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Media Contact: Jackie Carr, 619-543-6163, jcarr@ucsd.edu