UC San Diego Health Recognized by Vizient in 2021 Birnbaum Quality Leadership Performance Ranking

Article Content

UC San Diego Health announces it has been recognized as a top performer in the 2021 Bernard A. Birnbaum, MD, Quality Leadership Annual Ranking by Vizient Inc. 

UC San Diego Health was ranked 3rd nationally out of 101 members in the Comprehensive Academic Medical Centers cohort to be recognized for demonstrating excellence in delivering high-quality care based on the Vizient Quality and Accountability Ranking.

UC San Diego Health was ranked 3rd nationally out of 101 members in Vizient’s Comprehensive Academic Medical Centers cohort.

“It is with immense pride that we are recognized with this accolade for excellence in quality and patient safety,” said Patty Maysent, CEO, UC San Diego Health. “The timeliness of the Vizient rankings make them particularly meaningful because they show we achieved measurable results and improvement during the throes of a global pandemic. Our total picture of safety and quality during COVID-19 is exemplary; our improvement in patient experience, extraordinary.”

This year, 565 participating hospitals were segmented into four cohorts for the Vizient Quality and Accountability Ranking. The ranking measured performance on the quality of patient care in five domains: safety, mortality, effectiveness, efficiency and patient centeredness. The ranking factors in measures from the Vizient Clinical Data Base and includes performance in core measures data, the HCAHPS survey and the CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network. 

“Unlike other ranking systems that may only evaluate Medicare patients, the inclusivity of all patients in this ranking helps us universally evaluate and improve care for all of our patients, regardless of insurance status,” said Christopher Longhurst, MD, chief medical officer, UC San Diego Health. “This scorecard is also aligned with the Institute of Medicine’s recommendations for harm reduction, which includes lowering readmissions, infections and falls.”

“For three years in a row, UC San Diego Health has been ranked among the top ten health systems in the country,” said Chad VanDenBerg, MPH, chief quality and patient safety officer at UC San Diego Health. “We hope that these rankings, as well as our #1 local ranking in U.S. News & World Report, will provide objective third-party feedback that guides patients to select UC San Diego Health as their health care provider.”

Maysent acknowledges the stellar dedication of UC San Diego Health faculty and staff for their singular focus on patient outcomes to achieve these rankings.

“We thank our physicians, nurses, pharmacists, technicians, and all team members, for always putting our patients first,” said Maysent.

The Vizient Quality and Accountability Ranking helps participating hospitals and health systems understand their performance against their peers and identifies structures and processes associated with high performance in quality and safety across a broad spectrum of patient care activity. The recognition period is for work spanning July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021.

"As hospitals and health care systems continue to provide patient care during these unprecedented times, it's important to recognize their accomplishments," said David Levine, group senior vice president, analytics and data science for Vizient. "This year, all Vizient member accomplishments will be celebrated in November at the Vizient Connections Education Summit."