UCSF Medical Center Earns Top Status for Outstanding Patient Safety and Health Care Quality
UCSF Medical Center at Parnassus and UCSF Medical Center at Mount Zion have been recognized for their outstanding commitment to health care quality and patient safety with a new award presented by four of the state's leading health plans - Aetna, Blue Shield of California, CIGNA HealthCare of California and United HealthCare. The Excellence in Patient Safety & Health Care Quality Award is based on results from the Leapfrog Hospital Quality and Safety Survey.
UCSF Medical Center at Parnassus and UCSF Medical Center at Mount Zion are two of 22 hospitals among the top 10 percent of the 216 hospitals statewide responding to the Leapfrog survey that hold contracts with three or more of the health plans.
Hospitals receiving this recognition earned outstanding scores for instituting or making
great strides in achieving the Leapfrog Group's standards for four measures of hospital
quality and safety. The four areas of focus are:
- • Computer physician order entry, using computers to enter medication orders;
- • Evidence-based hospital referral, choosing hospitals with extensive experience and the best results with certain high-risk surgeries and conditions such as coronary artery bypass, abdominal aortic aneurysm repair and high-risk births;
- • Intensive care unit (ICU) staffing by physicians experienced in critical care medicine; and
- • The Leapfrog Safe Practices Score - based on the National Quality Forum-endorsed Safe Practices for Better Healthcare - which includes 27 additional practices to reduce preventable medical mistakes.