ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Mayo Clinic Rochester ranked as the nation's top performer in quality and accountability measurements in 2006, according to University Health System Consortium (UHC). For the second year, UHC recognized five of its members that have demonstrated excellence in delivering high-quality, safe, effective, and equitable care to their patients. Other centers recognized in 2006 are Brigham and Women's Hospital, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, The Ohio State University Medical Center, and The University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers.
"We are honored by this recognition, which reflects the dedication and expertise of all our staff who provide high-quality health care to our patients," says Glenn Forbes, M.D., CEO of Mayo Clinic Rochester. "Quality is not a single element in patient care but rather a combination of many factors combined with a clear focus on each patient's needs. Quality health care requires daily attention to detail and a collaborative team to make it a reality. We are fortunate to have physicians and other care providers whose concern for our patients means they work hard to ensure that every patient receives the best care we can provide every day."
The five top performers emerged following the rigorous application of a methodology that considered safety, mortality, effectiveness, and equity. The data examined was submitted in calendar year 2005 from 81 UHC members who participate in UHC's Clinical, Core Measures, and Operational databases.
All 81 members reviewed received a confidential scorecard of their rankings. The scorecard is an update to the landmark 2005 Quality and Accountability Project that successfully used key measures of organizational performance and focused on outcomes of care to study the characteristics of high-performing academic medical centers.
"Our objective in 2005, and going forward, was to determine what structures and practices are associated with excellent performance across an academic medical center. We followed the Institute of Medicine's domains of care to structure our performance categories," said Julie Cerese, senior director of UHC's Clinical Process Improvement and one of the study's leaders. Critical success factors identified in the 2005 study included a shared sense of purpose, passionate and purposeful leadership, vertical and horizontal accountability systems, a focus on results, and a culture of collaboration.
"Our members face unprecedented demands to demonstrate how they provide high-quality, safe, and effective care. We believe this scorecard enables academic medical center leaders to know where they stand when compared against peer organizations and, in the case of the five members named, to know where they have demonstrated a high level of quality in important dimensions of patient care," Cerese added.
UHC is an alliance of 95 academic medical centers (AMCs) and 139 of their affiliated hospitals, representing nearly 90 percent of the nation's nonprofit AMCs. UHC offers its members programs and services to improve clinical, operational, and patient safety performance.