University Hospitals once again named a World's Most Ethical Company by the Ethisphere Institute

CLEVELAND, March 9, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- University Hospitals (UH) has been recognized by the Ethisphere Institute, the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices, as a 2015 World's Most Ethical Company®.

UH was recognized for its programs in five key categories: ethics and compliance, corporate citizenship and responsibility, culture of ethics, governance and leadership, innovation and reputation.

"Our ongoing recognition as a World's Most Ethical Company is an accomplishment to celebrate, and serves as a reminder that we must always hold ourselves and each other to the highest ethical standards," said Thomas F. Zenty III, Chief Executive Officer of UH.

This is the third time in four years (previous years were 2012 and 2014) that the UH health system has received this honor.  Only 132 companies or organizations worldwide earned a place on the Ethisphere Institute's 2015 list, including just four health care systems.

UH was able to highlight several programs to Ethisphere to demonstrate a culture of integrity and caring.  At the core is UH's ethics and compliance program and around that are other programs working to enhance the community's health and quality of life. These include a system-wide sustainability program; workforce development program; UH's position as an anchor institution in the community, and outreach programs such as Healthy Harvest which made available fresh produce to almost 1,000 patients last year.

"We are committed to the broad-based health and prosperity of our employees, our patients and our region because it's the right thing to do," said Cheryl Forino Wahl, Chief Compliance Officer at UH.

Being a third-year honoree underscores UH's commitment to leading ethical business standards and practices ensuring long-term value to key stakeholders including patients, employees, suppliers, regulators.

The World's Most Ethical Companies designation recognizes those organizations that have had a material impact on the way business is conducted by fostering a culture of ethics and transparency at every level of the company.

"The World's Most Ethical Companies embrace the correlation between ethical business practice and improved company performance. These companies use ethics as a means to further define their industry leadership and understand that creating an ethical culture and earning the World's Most Ethical Companies recognition involves more than just an outward facing message or a handful of senior executives saying the right thing," said Ethisphere's Chief Executive Officer Timothy Erblich. "Earning this recognition involves the collective action of a workforce from the top down. We congratulate everyone at University Hospitals for this extraordinary achievement."

The World's Most Ethical Company assessment is based upon the Ethisphere Institute's Ethics Quotient™ (EQ) framework developed over years of research to provide a means to assess an organization's performance in an objective, consistent and standardized way. The information collected provides a comprehensive sampling of definitive criteria of core competencies, rather than all aspects of corporate governance, risk, sustainability, compliance and ethics. The EQ framework and methodology is determined, vetted and refined by the expert advice and insights gleaned from Ethisphere's network of thought leaders and from the World's Most Ethical Company Methodology Advisory Panel. 

The full list of the 2015 World's Most Ethical Companies can be found at http://ethisphere.com/worlds-most-ethical/wme-honorees/.

Senior executives of honorees contribute high-level insights and best practices to the well-regarded World's Most Ethical Companies Executive Briefing (download Volume 2 here). Additional insights gleaned from the World's Most Ethical Companies will be released in a series of whitepapers and infographics over the coming months (download the 2014 Insights). Organizations interested in how they compare to the World's Most Ethical Companies are invited to learn more about Ethisphere's services. 

About University Hospitals
University Hospitals, the second largest employer in Northeast Ohio with 25,000 employees, serves the needs of patients through an integrated network of 15 hospitals, 29 outpatient health centers and primary care physician offices in 15 counties. At the core of our $3.5 billion health system is University Hospitals Case Medical Center, ranked among America's 50 best hospitals by U.S. News & World Report in all 12 methodology-ranked specialties. The primary affiliate of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, UH Case Medical Center is home to some of the most prestigious clinical and research centers of excellence in the nation, including cancer, pediatrics, women's health, orthopaedics, radiology, neuroscience, cardiology and cardiovascular surgery, digestive health, transplantation and genetics. Its main campus includes UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, ranked among the top children's hospitals in the nation; UH MacDonald Women's Hospital, Ohio's only hospital for women; and UH Seidman Cancer Center, part of the NCI-designated Case Comprehensive Cancer Center at Case Western Reserve University. For more information, go to www.uhhospitals.org

About the Ethisphere Institute
The Ethisphere® Institute is the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices that fuel corporate character, marketplace trust and business success. Ethisphere has deep expertise in measuring and defining core ethics standards using data-driven insights that help companies enhance corporate character. Ethisphere honors superior achievement through its World's Most Ethical Companies® recognition program, provides a community of industry experts with the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA) and showcases trends and best practices in ethics with the publication of Ethisphere Magazine and The World's Most Ethical Companies Executive Briefing. Ethisphere is also the leading provider of independent verification of corporate ethics and compliance programs. More information about Ethisphere can be found at: http://ethisphere.com. 

SOURCE University Hospitals