VUMC leaps onto hospital quality ranking
Vanderbilt University Hospital has been named among the nation's 65 Leapfrog Top Hospitals for 2011. VUH is the only Tennessee hospital to make the list.
The Leapfrog Group is a coalition of public and private purchasers of employee health coverage that works to encourage health care safety, quality and affordability.
Together, Leapfrog members provide health benefits to more than 37 million Americans spread among all 50 states.
Their Top Hospitals list is based on an annual hospital safety and quality survey, which this year took in some 1,200 of the nation's approximately 5,800 registered hospitals.
“Recognition from Leapfrog again this year is further acknowledgment of the skill, diligence and dedication exhibited every day by our faculty and staff,” said C. Wright Pinson, MBA, M.D., deputy vice chancellor for Health Affairs and CEO of the Vanderbilt Health System.
“As we deepen our commitment to patient care, safety and quality, this recognition can only help focus our efforts by knowing outside groups are paying such close interest to our continued progress and have found our patient care to be exemplary.”
Leapfrog has published these unranked lists since 2006 and this is the fifth time VUH has been included.
“This recognition from the payer community is a very welcome reminder that, to a large degree, the value of our work is to be measured in clinical quality, reliability and safety,” said David Posch, CEO of Vanderbilt University Hospital and Clinics. “Congratulations to all.”
VUH and the other urban generalist/adult hospitals on the 2011 list all:
• Meet Leapfrog standards for implementing computer physician order entry systems that help prevent medication errors;
• Meet stringent performance standards for at least half of the complex, high-risk procedures done in the hospital;
• Meet intensive care unit staffing standards that ensure ICU patients are cared for by specially trained doctors; and
• Score at least 69 (out of 100) in efficiency according to a cost-to-quality scale devised by Leapfrog.