Awards & Achievements

UCLA Health is widely recognized as a leader in providing high-quality care. Here are some of the most recent accolades that distinguish our hospitals, clinics, caregivers and programs.

Accreditations and Designations

• Newsweek recognized Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center with an America’s Best-In-State Award for 2025, highlighting its outstanding commitment to patient care and excellence in health care.
• UCLA Health received a top score and the designation of “LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality Leader” in an annual assessment by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. 
• Newsweek recognized UCLA Health on its annual list of World's Best Hospitals 2023.
• UCLA Medical Center of Santa Monica and University of California Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center both earned an "A" for the spring 2023 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade.
• The Joint Commission, which accredits and certifies nearly 21,000 health care organizations each year, awarded Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center the maximum three-year accreditation.
• The Joint Commission certified UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center as a “Primary Stroke Center.” 
• American College of Surgeons designated Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center as the highest-level Trauma Center.
• Los Angeles County Department of Health Services Emergency Medical Services Agency accredited Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center as a ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) Heart Attack Receiving Center.
• UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center achieved "Straight A's" in the Fall 2021 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade. As the nation's most prestigious honor for patient safety, Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses more than 30 national performance measures from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
• The American Heart Association and American Stroke Association recognized UCLA with a 2020 Get With the Guidelines Stroke Gold Plus Award with Honor Roll Elite and Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll Achievement.
• The American Heart Association and American Stroke Association recognized UCLA with a 2018 Get With the Guidelines Heart Failure Gold Plus Award for achieving 85% or higher adherence to all Get with the Guidelines Heart Failure Performance Achievement Indicators.
• RAC, a national accreditation organization, granted UCLA Health a Patient-Centered Medical Home accreditation, a standard for excellence in ambulatory patient care.
• The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, a program sponsored by the World Health Organization and United Nations Children's Fund, recognized Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center with a "baby-friendly" designation in 2017.
• Press Ganey recognized Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA for outstanding nursing quality.
• Vizient, a company that seeks to help health care organizations deliver exceptional, cost-effective patient care, recognized Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center Health with the 2017 Rising Star Award for making significant improvements in year-over-year performance in quality and accountability.
• CAPG, an association representing physician organizations in 38 states, recognized UCLA Medical Group with the highest rating possible in its 2017 Standards of Excellence Survey.
• Healthgrades, a resource connecting consumers and health care organizations, recognized Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center as Distinguished Hospitals for Clinical Excellence.
• Healthgrades named UCLA Health as one of America’s 100 Best Hospitals in 2021 for the 3^rd year in a row. This recognition goes to the top 2% in the nation for consistently delivering clinical quality year after year.

Research

Patients benefit from UCLA Health’s standing as a comprehensive academic medical system, where physicians and scientists work together to research new ways to diagnose and treat diseases.

• National Institutes of Health awarded the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA with funding totaling $303 million in 2016. The school is consistently among the tops in the nation in research funding awarded.
• U.S. News & World Report ranked the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA 8th in research and 4th in primary care in its annual assessment of medical schools in 2018.
• The David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA has made numerous research breakthroughs that serve the public by advancing health care.
• National Cancer Institute in 2017 designated the brain cancer program at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer and the UCLA Brain Tumor Center as a Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) site to honor and support exemplary achievements in research and patient care.
• National Cancer Institute in 2013 renewed the SPORE designation for the prostate cancer program at the cancer center and the David Geffen School of Medicine Department of Urology.

Technology

• We achieved Most Wired level 9 in both ambulatory and inpatient.
• Hospitals & Health Networks named Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center one of the “Most Wired” hospitals in the nation.
• U.S. News & World Report recognized UCLA Health as one of the “Most Connected Hospitals” for excellence in patient safety and engagement and clinical connectedness.
• HIMSS Analytics, a global healthcare advisor, awarded Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA and UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center with an acute care Stage 7 award for highest level of electronic medical record progress at hospitals and health systems.

Patient Satisfaction

• Vizient awarded UCLA Health the 2024 Ambulatory Quality and Accountability Award, a top recognition that measures the quality of outpatient care in five domains: access to care, continuum of care, quality, efficiency, and equity 
• Healthgrades recognized UCLA Health with the 2023 Outstanding Patient Experience Award. 
• Healthgrades recognized UCLA Health with the 2021 Outstanding Patient Experience Award.
• Integrated Healthcare Association, a nonprofit organization that advocates for quality and affordability for patients in California and beyond, recognized UCLA Medical Group with its 2021 Excellence in Healthcare Award for the 3rd year in a row and a Top 10 % Performer in patient experience.
• Vizient, a company that seeks to help health care organizations deliver exceptional, cost-effective patient care, ranked UCLA Health No. 2 in Patient Centeredness among 107 hospitals evaluated in its 2017 AMC Quality and Accountability Performance Scorecard.
• Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems recognized Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center for high “likelihood to recommend” rankings and exceptional patient-satisfaction scores.

Physician Excellence

• We achieved America’s Physician Groups Standards of Excellence™ Survey 2022
• We achieved America's Best Ambulatory Surgery Centers.
• Los Angeles Magazine named more than 150 UCLA Health physicians to its 2018 Top Doctor List.

Specialties

• National Cancer Institute recognized UCLA Health's Prostate Cancer and Brain Tumor Programs as Centers of Excellence.
• Press Ganey awarded UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center with a 2016 Guardian of Excellence Award for outstanding Neonatal Intensive Care Unit care.
• American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy awarded the Endoscopy Units at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and 200 UCLA Medical Plaza with "Quality Star" designations.

Workplace and Culture

• Newsweek recognized UCLA Health as one of America's 100 Most Loved Workplaces in 2024.
• Forbes recognized UCLA Health as one of America’s Best Large Employers 2024.
• With so many career options in California, we’re honored to have been named by Forbes as one of America's Best Employers by State in 2024.
• Johnese Spisso, President, UCLA Health and CEO, UCLA Hospital System, has been recognized on Becker’s Hospital Review's 2024 list of "Great Healthcare Leaders to Know" for healthcare innovation, inclusivity, access to quality care and the transformation of the healthcare system. 
• Our employees love what they do, where they work, and the people they work with. In fact, we were Certified by Newsweek in 2024 as a Most Loved Workplace.
• Empowering and equipping women to reach their highest professional and personal potential enabled us to be named one of Forbes Best Employers for Women.
• We’re focused on continually elevating diversity and inclusion in the workplace and have been named one of Forbes’ Best Employers for Diversity for 2024.
• The prestigious and respected Becker’s Hospital Review named UCLA Health one of the Top Places to Work in 2024.
• Getting your career off to a great start depends a lot on where you start, and we were named one of Forbes’ Best Employers for New Graduates in 2024.

Milestones

• UCLA Health has the largest combined heart-lung transplant program in the country.
• The Liver-Transplant Team performed its 6,000th liver transplant in June 2016 – the highest number of liver transplants performed at any one center in the U.S.
• The Lung Transplant program performed a milestone 1,000th surgery in September 2016, becoming the first program on the West Coast, and one of only seven centers nationwide to do so.