Thursday, September 18, 2008 --- 11:40 a.m.

MADISON – A nationally recognized “scorecard” for measuring the quality of major teaching hospitals puts University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics in the nation’s top five best-performing institutions.

The purpose of the annual assessment is to measure the performance of teaching hospitals in several areas known to be essential to delivering excellent care consistently across a wide variety of populations. This year, 88 academic medical centers were included in the analysis.

UW Hospital performed well on the five key measures that the University Healthsystem Consortium (UHC) assessed. They are:
· Mortality -- comparing the observed death rate to the expected death rate for patients in a wide variety of medical specialties
· Effectiveness -- are patients receiving all care for which they are eligible; how many need to be re-admitted within 30 days for a related condition
· Safety – based on eight patient-safety indicators used by federal health-quality agencies
· Equity – Is hospital performance consistently strong between male and female patients, white and non-white and people of varying socio-economic levels?
· Patient-Centeredness – How highly do patients themselves rate their experience at the hospital?

The annual ranking is produced by UHC, a national organization representing approximately 90 percent of the nation’s non-profit academic medical centers (teaching hospitals that are directly affiliated with a medical school).

“Breaking the top five in this assessment – which is based on strong evidence of what works to improve patient care – is a tremendous achievement for our organization,” said president and CEO Donna Katen-Bahensky. “I am especially proud for our physicians and staff, who share with our leadership a focus on results and accountability.”

Katen-Bahensky said the ranking verifies that UW Hospital performs well across the board, not just in particular areas.

“Consistently high performance across all areas is a central goal of the quality improvement effort nationally and certainly is of highest importance to UW Hospital and Clinics,” says Katen-Bahensky.

In fact, an earlier UHC study identified the critical factors that make a hospital successful in delivering high-quality patient care. They are:

· A shared sense of purpose throughout the organization
· A “hands-on” leadership style in which the “patients first” philosophy is constantly reinforced
· A system of accountability
· A focus on results
· A collaborative culture.

The other four institutions in the top five are MethodistHospital, Indianapolis; RushUniversityMedicalCenter, Chicago; St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, Houston; and UniversityMedicalCenter, Houston.

The award will be presented today at the UHC Quality and Safety Fall Forum in Scottsdale, Arizona.