Nebraska Medicine earns elite national quality award

On hand at the 2016 Vizient Clinical Connections Summit in Dallas from Nebraska Medicine were (from left to right) Nicole Turille, Tanvir Hussain, M.D., Julie Fedderson, M.D,. Michael Ash, M.D., Jose Rivera, Dan DeBehnke, M.D., and Sue Nuss, Ph.D.

Nebraska Medicine is honored to announce its recognition by Vizient,Inc. (formerly known as University HealthSystem Consortium or UHC) as the recipient of the 2016 Bernard A. Birnbaum, MD Quality Leadership Award.

The award recognizes Nebraska Medicine’s performance among more than 100 academic medical centers participating in Vizient’s Quality and Accountability Study. Thirteen academic medical centers were recognized this year. Nebraska Medicine is ranked 10th and is the only health system in the region to earn this recognition. The honorees are:

  • University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics
  • NYU Langone Medical Center
  • Mayo Clinic Hospital-Rochester
  • Froedtert Health-Froedtert Hospital

  • Rush University Medical Center
  • WVU Medicine West Virginia University Hospitals
  • Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
  • Cedars-Sinai Health System
  • Houston Methodist
  • Nebraska Medicine
  • The Ohio State University Wexner Health System
  • University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers
  • University of Vermont Medical Center

“This is truly a special honor for everyone at Nebraska Medicine,” said Dan DeBehnke, M.D., CEO of Nebraska Medicine. “Achieving a Five Star ranking took a tremendous amount of dedication and work from many, many people here.”

This year, more than 100 academic medical centers and 124 community hospitals were included in the study, which reviewed performance data from a variety of sources, including Vizient’s Clinical Data Base, the core measures data base, the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Healthcare Safety Network.

“Nebraska Medicine is dedicated to providing our patients with the highest quality, safest, most efficient and compassionate care available,” said Michael Ash, M.D., chief transformation officer, “To achieve a top ten Vizient Quality Leadership rank, among our nation’s elite academic medical centers, is a reflection of our colleagues and their devotion to extraordinary patient care.”

The survey shows Nebraska Medicine’s safety ranking is fifth nationally.

“These are tremendous advances. I salute the efforts and innovation of our physicians, nurses and all the professionals here who work tirelessly every day to deliver extraordinary care to our patients,” said Jose Rivera, Nebraska Medicine’s director of quality and analytics.

Vizient’s Quality and Accountability Study helps academic medical centers and community hospitals identify structures and processes associated with high performance in quality and safety across a broad spectrum of patient care activity. The Institute of Medicine’s six domains of care — safety, timeliness, effectiveness, efficiency, equity and patient centeredness — were used as a guide in structuring the study criteria.