Newswise — DALLAS – October 6, 2015 – UT Southwestern Medical Center’s William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital has received a national Rising Star Quality Leadership award from the University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC) for its quality and safety efforts.

The award recognizes significant improvements in ranking in the UHC's annual Quality and Accountability Study, which identifies exemplary performance in patient safety, mortality, clinical effectiveness, and equity of care among academic medical centers. UT Southwestern now ranks within in the top 20.

“We are pleased to be recognized from among more than 300 academic medical center hospitals for our ongoing efforts and commitment to quality and safety at Clements University Hospital,” said Dr. Bruce Meyer, Executive Vice President for Health System Affairs. “This recognition underscores our dedication to achieve the highest levels of safety and quality care for our patients,” added Dr. Meyer, who holds the T.C. Lupton Family Professorship in Patient Care, in Honor of Dr. John Dowling McConnell and Dr. David Andrew Pistenmaa.

The UHC Quality and Accountability Study was designed to help academic medical centers identify structures and practices that are associated with high performance in quality and safety. The study analyzes organizational performance in the National Academy of Medicine’s domains of care: mortality, effectiveness, safety, equity, patient centeredness, and efficiency.

UT Southwestern received the award during the UHC annual conference held Oct. 1-2 in Orlando, Fla., the largest such event focused exclusively on academic medical centers, according to the UHC, an alliance of the nation's leading nonprofit academic medical centers that fosters collaboration with and among its 117 academic medical center and 310 affiliated hospital members.

UT Southwestern’s William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital, which opened last December, was always envisioned as a building that would support and facilitate the delivery of higher quality care for patients and families. The design process was collaborative, including nurses, physicians, support staff, and patients and their family members, all offering perspective and ideas about quality, safety, efficiency, and the patient experience. The result is a 12-floor, 460-bed facility in which every detail contributes to enhanced patient care. For example, the building’s distinctive W-shape reduces the distances caregivers must travel to reach patients, provides better adjacencies for members of care teams, and reduces hallway traffic, contributing to an unusually quiet, peaceful environment for healing.

“This focus on quality, safety, and efficiency was front of mind when we designed our new Clements University Hospital,” said Dr. John Warner, Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of UT Southwestern University Hospitals. “Receiving this award in our first year of operation reflects not only the success of the design, but more importantly the commitment of our faculty and staff to the quality, safety and experience of the care they deliver,” added Dr. Warner, Professor of Internal Medicine and holder of the Jim and Norma Smith Distinguished Chair for Interventional Cardiology, and the Audre and Bernard Rapoport Chair in Cardiovascular Research.

The hospital, located at 6201 Harry Hines Blvd. in Dallas, is named for former Texas Governor William P. Clements Jr., who in 2009 made an unprecedented $100 million gift to benefit UT Southwestern, the largest single contribution in the institution’s history. The gift was unrestricted in its use, with only one stipulation – that the funds be used for a transformational purpose. Governor Clements’ gift, along with the combined generosity of the Dallas philanthropic community, was instrumental in making the Building the Future of Medicine campaign a success, raising more than $200 million for the hospital.

Clements University Hospital fully integrates the university Medical Center’s three-part mission: excellence in patient care, the education and training of current and future caregivers, and research that improves the care and health of people everywhere.

About UT Southwestern Medical CenterUT Southwestern, one of the premier academic medical centers in the nation, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution’s faculty includes many distinguished members, including six who have been awarded Nobel Prizes since 1985. The faculty of more than 2,700 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians provide medical care in 40 specialties to about 92,000 hospitalized patients and oversee approximately 2.1 million outpatient visits a year.