Newswise — UC San Diego Health has been named a top performer in the 2019 Bernard A. Birnbaum, MD, Quality Leadership Award category by Vizient, Inc. This award recognizes UC San Diego Health among the nation’s top ten academic medical centers for achieving the highest levels of quality and patient-centered outcomes for all patients.

“This distinguishing honor was achieved through the unwavering dedication of every UC San Diego Health team member, in every location, to make a difference in the care of our patients,” said Patty Maysent, CEO, UC San Diego Health. “Our high level of commitment to continuous improvement is leading to visible results: decreased infections, decreased length of stay, and the overall improved health and safety of our patients.”

UC San Diego Health was recognized as sixth among the top academic medical centers in the U.S. for excellence in delivering high-quality care. The ranking is based on the Vizient Quality and Accountability dashboard which measures safety, mortality, clinical effectiveness, efficiency and patient centeredness.

“Leading hospitals across the country effectively use clinical, cost and operational data to engage their teams in driving improvements in patient care,” said Bharat Sundaram, president and Chief Operating Officer for Vizient. “This award recognizes UC San Diego Health’s performance-driven culture for achieving the highest quality and patient-centered outcomes.”

The Vizient Quality and Accountability Ranking helps participating hospitals and health systems understand their performance against their peers and identifies structures and processes associated with high performance in quality and safety across a broad spectrum of patient care activity. The recognition period is for work spanning July 2018 through June 2019.

This year, 93 comprehensive academic medical centers were part of the Vizient ranking process. The scoring system used patient-level performance data from a variety of sources, including the Vizient Clinical Data Base, the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN).

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