Surveys Aim to Educate Consumers, Improve Hospital Performance
UCLA Medical Center has been named to the Leapfrog Group's 2007 top hospitals list based on a national hospital safety and quality survey compiled by the Washington, D.C.-based group.
UCLA was one of 41 U.S. hospitals – and the only Los Angeles area hospital -- named in the 2007 Leapfrog Top Hospitals, based on results from the Leapfrog Hospital Quality and Safety Survey, a rating system that provides an up-to-the-minute assessment of a hospital's quality and safety.
The Leapfrog Group (www.leapfroggroup.org) scores hospitals according to their performance in four categories:
Use of computerized physician order entry: Do physicians enter patient prescriptions and other orders into computers linked to error prevention software?
Staffing intensive care units with specially-trained personnel called intensivists;
Performance on seven high-risk procedures and care for three high-risk neonatal conditions; and
Progress on complying with 27 National Quality Forum-endorsed safety practices.
"Our participation in the survey reflects our commitment to continually improving the quality of our care, and we appreciate the valuable information it provides to us and the public," said Dr. Tom Rosenthal, chief medical officer, UCLA Medical Center.
"Leapfrog Top Hospitals demonstrate an exceptional level of performance on quality and patient safety measures and serve as a model for other hospitals," said Suzanne Delbanco, CEO, The Leapfrog Group, in a statement. "However, all of the participating hospitals deserve praise for their willingness to raise the veil on how well they perform on vital quality and safety practices."
UCLA Medical Center is ranked as one of the top three hospitals in the nation and has been ranked as the best hospital in the Western United States for 18 consecutive years, according to U.S. News & World Report's survey that reviews patient outcomes data, reputation among physicians and other care-related factors. UCLA Medical Center is the only Southern California hospital to earn a spot on the magazine's "honor roll" rankings during all 18 years U.S. News has conducted the survey. UCLA Medical Center is a non-profit, self-supporting 668-bed hospital providing patient care in all medical specialties. It is the primary teaching hospital for the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. The Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA is a separately licensed acute psychiatric hospital providing adults, teens and children with a full continuum of psychiatric care, including inpatient, day hospital and outpatient services. Located in the UCLA Medical Center, UCLA's Mattel Children's Hospital is a hospital-within-a-hospital that includes a 120-bed inpatient unit and an outpatient Children's Health Center. For information about UCLA's clinical programs or help in choosing a personal physician, please call (800) UCLA-MD1 or visit http://www.uclahealth.org/.
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