UCSD named among 100 Top Hospitals by Thomson Reuters

UC San Diego Medical Center, located in Hillcrest, has been named one of the nation's 100 Top Hospitals® by Thomson Reuters. Ranked among the country's major teaching hospitals, the Medical Center was also one of twelve hospitals to receive the Everest Award. This award honors hospitals that have achieved both the highest current performance and the fastest long-term improvement over a five-year period in Reuter's national benchmarking study.

"These honors reflect the extraordinary achievements of UC San Diego Health System teams that are dedicated to delivering the highest quality and most efficient care possible to all patients," said Tom McAfee, MD, interim CEO, UC San Diego Health System. "Our goal is to deliver specialized lifesaving care based on an evidence-based model that can be replicated by hospitals nationwide."

"Our Quality Council has actively pursued the strategic goals of achieving outstanding outcomes and preventing patient harm," said Angela Scioscia, MD, CMO, UC San Diego Health System. "Performance improvement efforts have been deliberate to achieve what Thomson Reuter's calls 'balanced excellence.' Most notable are our innovations in resuscitation services and training, prevention of health care associated infections, strategies to provide medication safely, and commitment to advancing and leveraging our clinical informatics."

The Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals® study evaluates performance in 10 areas: mortality; medical complications; patient safety; average patient stay; expenses; profitability; patient satisfaction; adherence to clinical standards of care; post-discharge mortality; and readmission rates for acute myocardial infarction (heart attack), heart failure, and pneumonia. The study has been conducted annually since 1993.

To conduct the 100 Top Hospitals study, Thomson Reuters researchers evaluated 2,886 short-term, acute care, non-federal hospitals. They used public information — Medicare cost reports, Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MedPAR) data, and core measures and patient satisfaction data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Compare website. Hospitals do not apply, and winners do not pay to market this honor.

The winning hospitals were announced in the April 16 edition of Modern Healthcare magazine.

"This year, the concentration of 100 Top Hospitals award winners has shifted significantly, with Texas, Florida, and California housing the most winners," said Jean Chenoweth, senior vice president at Thomson Reuters. "A major change in performance geographically is an encouraging indication that the bar for quality care has been raised once again."