UK HealthCare Earns “Top Performer on Key Quality Measures” Recognition from The Joint Commission

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 4, 2013) – UK HealthCare has been named a "Top Performer on Key Quality Measures" by The Joint Commission, the leading accreditor of health care organizations in America. UK HealthCare was recognized by The Joint Commission for exemplary performance using evidence-based clinical processes that are shown to improve care in five areas - the most by any hospital included in the Kentucky listing.

UK HealthCare was named a Top Performer in the following areas: Heart Attack, Heart Failure, Pneumonia, Surgical Care, and Children's Asthma.

In The Joint Commission recognition, UK was one of 1,099 hospitals in the U.S. and 25 in Kentucky earning the distinction of "Top Performer on Key Quality Measures" for attaining and sustaining excellence in accountability measure performance.

This is the second national recognition UK HealthCare has received in the past few weeks.  Earlier in October, UK HealthCare also earned national accolades as recipient of the University HealthSystem Consortium's (UHC) Rising Star Award which recognizes significant improvements in ranking in UHC’s annual Quality and Accountability Study, which identifies exemplary performance in patient safety, mortality, clinical effectiveness, and equity of care.  UHC is an alliance of the nation’s leading nonprofit University medical centers. 

UK HealthCare had the highest jump in rankings in the UHC’s history with a Quality and Accountability Ranking of 12th among the nation's 118 academic medical centers.

The ratings are based on an aggregation of accountability measure data reported to The Joint Commission during the 2012 calendar year. The list of Top Performer organizations increased by 77 percent from last year and it represents 33 percent of all Joint Commission-accredited hospitals reporting accountability measure performance data for 2012.

UK HealthCare and each of the hospitals that were named as a Top Performer on Key Quality Measures must achieve cumulative performance of 95 percent or above across all reported accountability measures; achieve performance of 95 percent or above on each and every reported accountability measure where there are at least 30 denominator cases; and have at least one core measure set that has a composite rate of 95 percent or above, and (within that measure set) all applicable individual accountability measures have a performance rate of 95 percent or above. A 95 percent score means a hospital provided an evidence-based practice 95 times out of 100 opportunities to provide the practice.

“UK HealthCare and all the Top Performer hospitals have demonstrated an exceptional commitment to quality improvement and they should be proud of their achievement,” says Dr. Mark R. Chassin, president and chief executive officer, The Joint Commission. “We have much to celebrate this year. Nearly half of our accredited hospitals have attained or nearly attained the Top Performer distinction. This truly shows that we are approaching a tipping point in hospital quality performance that will directly contribute to better health outcomes for patients.”

More information can be found in The Joint Commission’s “Improving America’s Hospitals” annual report, and The Joint Commission’s Quality Check website (www.qualitycheck.org). UK HealthCare will also be included as part of the Top Performer program featured in the December issues of The Joint Commission Perspectives and The Source.

Media Contact: Kristi Lopez, 859-323-6363