Feb 27 2013
University of California, San Diego Medical Center has been named one of the nation's 100 Top Hospitals® for the second time by Truven Health Analytics, formerly the health care business of Thomson Reuters. Truven Health Analytics is a leading provider of information and solutions to improve the cost and quality of health care.
The Truven Health 100 Top Hospitals® study evaluates performance in 10 areas: mortality; medical complications; patient safety; average patient stay; expenses; profitability; patient satisfaction; adherence to clinical standards of care; post-discharge mortality; and readmission rates for acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, and pneumonia. The study is celebrating its 20th year, and has been conducted annually since 1993.
"With more than 6,000 hospitals in the United States, to be distinguished as one of the nation's top 100 hospitals is an honor that reflects the devotion, hard work and commitment of our staff and faculty," said Paul Viviano, CEO, UC San Diego Health System. "As the region's only academic health system, we strive to demonstrate superior clinical outcomes and improved patient safety based on new science and new medicine, in an environment where our patients always come first."
To conduct the 100 Top Hospitals study, Truven Health researchers evaluated 2,922 short-term, acute care, non-federal hospitals. They used public information — Medicare cost reports, Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MedPAR) data, and core measures and patient satisfaction data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Compare website. Hospitals do not apply, and winners do not pay to market this honor.
"We are committed to providing safe patient-centered care and achieving optimal clinical outcomes through the practice of evidence-based medicine, teamwork and multi-disciplinary care," said Angela Scioscia, MD, CMO, UC San Diego Health System. "We have leveraged our electronic medical record to provide best practice alerts, standardized care and enhanced patient communication. Recent efforts have focused on improving transitions in care, medication management and preventive health care."
Last year, UC San Diego was also recognized as an Everest Award winner, which honors hospitals that have achieved both the highest current performance and the fastest long-term improvement over a five-year period. This year's winning hospitals were announced in the February 25th edition of Modern Healthcare magazine.
"This year's winners have brought even higher value to their local communities - better quality, higher efficiency and high patient perceptions of care, while confronting the challenges of massive industry-wide transformation to implement healthcare reform," said Jean Chenoweth, senior vice president at Truven Health Analytics. "The key to success in a tumultuous environment is visionary leadership that develops and maintains a hospital-wide culture of excellence that cuts across everything, from patient care to housekeeping to administration, and the refusal to rest on laurels when it comes to adopting new technologies and techniques. I congratulate this year's winners for their persistent drive for excellence."
If all Medicare inpatients received the same level of care as those treated in the award-winning facilities:
*More than 164,000 additional lives could be saved.
*Approximately 82,000 additional patients could be complication free.
*$6 billion could be saved.
*The average patient stay would decrease by nearly half a day.
Source: UC San Diego Health System
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