UHC Recognized 10 Full Academic Medical Center

CHICAGO, Sept. 23- UHC has recognized 10 of its full academic medical center* (AMC) members with the 2011 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's winners are:

1. University of Colorado Hospital
2. The University of Kansas Hospital Authority
3. Northwestern Memorial Hospital
4. Mayo Clinic in Rochester
5. UC San Diego Health System
6. Denver Health
7. University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics
8. Beaumont Health System (Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak)
9. The Ohio State University Medical Center
10. Emory Healthcare (Emory University Hospital)

"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. The Institute of Medicine's 6 domains of care—mortality,  effectiveness, safety, equity,  patient centeredness, and efficiency—were again used as a guide in structuring the study.

This year, 101 UHC member institutions were included in the analysis, which 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 award winners were announced at the UHC Annual Conference 2011, "LEAP: Lead, Excel, Achieve, Perform." Held in Chicago, the conference drew nearly 1,500 leaders in quality and safety from more than a hundred AMCs across the country.

"This event is just one example of how UHC brings together leading AMCs and affiliated hospitals to elevate performance and improve the quality of health care in the United States," said Julie Cerese, MSN, UHC vice president, Performance Improvement. "Through the 2011 UHC Quality Leadership Award and the annual conference, member AMCs' achievements in performance are showcased and shared with other members to help them improve."

*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.