Five Academic Medical Centers Receive 2010 UHC Quality Leadership Award

OAK BROOK, Ill., Sept. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- The University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC) today recognized 5 of its full academic medical center* (AMC) members with the 2010 UHC Quality Leadership Award. The award is given to AMCs that demonstrated excellence in delivering high-quality care as measured by the UHC Quality & Accountability Study, which UHC has conducted annually since 2005.

This year, 98 UHC member institutions were included in the analysis, which relies on data from the UHC Clinical Data Base/Resource Manager™, UHC Operational Data Base, UHC Core Measures database, and the publicly reported Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems.

"National recognition is well deserved for these organizations that have distinguished themselves as high-performing institutions in complex environments. I salute the top performers and extend our congratulations to all AMC leaders and employees who daily demonstrate a passion for improving patient care and operational effectiveness," said Irene M. Thompson, UHC president and chief executive officer.

UHC's distinctive Quality and Accountability Study was designed to help AMCs indentify structures and processes associated with high performance in quality and safety across a broad spectrum of patient care activity. The Institute of Medicine's 6 domains of care—safety, timeliness, effectiveness, efficiency, equity, and patient centeredness—were again used as a guide in structuring the study. A steering committee composed of several members from the UHC Clinical Evaluative Sciences Council and experts in performance data analysis provided study oversight.

"Extraordinary dedication to performance improvement continues throughout our membership, and is demonstrated by this unique study," said UHC's Mark Keroack, MD, MPH, senior vice president and chief medical officer. Dr. Keroack, with others at UHC, developed the study approach and has conducted several organizational development workshops for UHC hospitals across the country. He is the lead author of "Organizational Factors Associated with High Performance in Quality and Safety in Academic Medical Centers," which was published in the December 2007 issue of Academic Medicine.

Engraved crystal awards will be presented to award winners by Ms. Thompson at the 10th annual UHC Quality & Safety Fall Forum, themed, "Above & Beyond: the Power of Minds in Motion." This year's forum, held in San Diego, is the largest to date, drawing 800 leaders in quality and safety from more than 90 AMCs across the country.

"We are pleased to offer strengthened content by and for the membership this year. We have doubled the number of presentations throughout the meeting, signaling the amount of activity and accomplishments—and desire to share achievements—across the UHC membership," said Julie Cerese, MSN, UHC vice president, Performance Improvement and a forum organizer.

This year's plenary speakers are:

• Dartmouth's Elliott S. Fisher, MD, MPH, professor of medicine and director of the famed Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care, who will discuss how AMCs can lead the transformation of health care
• Mark R. Laret, chief executive officer of the UCSF Medical Center and UCSF Children's Hospital, who will speak about transforming the culture of quality and safety there
• UHC's Dr. Keroack, who will describe the 5 key characteristics found in hospital organizations that are transforming their performance in quality and safety

*A full, integrated AMC is defined by UHC as one under common ownership with a medical school or one in which the majority of the medical school department chairs either serve as the hospital's chiefs of service or are responsible for appointing the hospital's chiefs of service.

UHC, based in Oak Brook, Ill, a suburb of Chicago, includes 107 AMCs and 241 of their affiliated hospitals in its membership, representing more than 90% of the nation's nonprofit AMCs. UHC provides data products and services to support clinical, operational, financial and supply chain improvement. UHC's Patient Safety Net® serves as the patient safety system for UHC's Patient Safety Organization, one on the first 10 listed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in 2008. Visit www.uhc.edu for more information.

SOURCE University HealthSystem Consortium