University Hospitals recognized as a 2015 World's Most Ethical Company

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."