Quality and safety measures

UC Davis Medical Center voluntarily participates in a number of public reporting initiatives and efforts that focus on quality of care and patient safety.

• In 2008, UC Davis Medical Center exceeded Leapfrog Group standards for patient outcome and minimum volumes, including high-risk deliveries and neonatal intensive care, bariatric surgery, esophageal surgery and pancreatic surgery. The medical center also achieved top marks for intensivist ICU staffing. UC Davis Medical Center ranked 13th among 1,153 participating U.S. hospitals in the safe practices portion of the Leapfrog Group survey. The Leapfrog Group is a national public-private consortium that provides a broad assessment of hospital quality and safety.
  
  
• UC Davis Medical Center meets or exceeds national norms in a number of quality control measures tracked by the Hospital Quality Alliance or HQA, a national public-private collaboration to improve health care. The federal government’s Hospital Compare website provides HQA data related to four conditions — heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical infection — and UC Davis Medical Center exceeded the criteria for 18 of 24 “core measures” standards and protocols in 2008.  
  
  
• The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems initiative or HCAHPS measures patients' perspectives on hospital care. Results through mid-2008 show that UC Davis Medical Center approximates state and national averages in most categories, and excels in "willingness to recommend this hospital." The medical center's overall rating continues to improve, with 65 percent of respondents giving the top rating. This information is also available on the Hospital Compare website.  
  
  
• UC Davis Medical Center also participates in CalHospitalCompare, a statewide rating system operated by the California Healthcare Foundation. This website repeats the measures from HospitalCompare and incorporates other measures. In data posted on the CalHospitalCompare website as of August 2009, the medical center achieved ratings of average or better on 15 of 17 measures.
  
  
• The pediatric intensive care unit at UC Davis Children's Hospital regularly ranks in the top six among 33 units that use the Pediatric Risk of Mortality (PRISM) program, a national standard used for quantifying performance at a number of children's hospitals. UC Davis had ranked in the top six units for seven consecutive years as of 2007, the year with the most recent finalized data available. PRISM data shows that while youngsters admitted to UC Davis are sicker (85 percent of admissions are emergency cases), they are more likely to survive their illness or injury than those admitted to most of the other pediatric intensive care units in the sample.
  
  
  

UC Davis Health System is widely recognized for its leading-edge discovery; training the next generation of doctors and investigators; and providing outstanding comprehensive clinical care and public service.

• Community service is at the heart of UC Davis Health System’s teaching, research and patient care missions. The Association of American Medical Colleges honored the health system with its “Outstanding Community Service Award” in 2005 in recognition of a longstanding commitment to local communities and surrounding regions.
  
  
• As the region’s only academic medical center and inland Northern California’s only level 1 trauma center, UC Davis is at the forefront of the latest discoveries and best treatments.
  
  
• UC Davis has inland Northern California’s only National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center and one of the nation’s largest clinical trial programs.
  
  
• UC Davis School of Medicine has developed a national reputation for excellence in its primary care training program and ranks among the top medical schools in the nation according to U.S. News & World Report.
  
  
• UC Davis Health System’s research program, marked by collaboration and partnerships, is rapidly expanding.
  
  
• UC Davis Health System enhances the quality of life and economic strength of the region by sponsoring health information forums, collaborating with other education institutions to help train needed health-care workers, acting as a catalyst through its research to foster the growth of innovative life sciences companies in the Sacramento area, operating five free student-run clinics for specific medically underserved populations, and providing more health care to the uninsured than any other hospital in the region.

Our professional staff are at the core of our commitment to quality and are critical to ensuring the safe care and satisfaction of our patients. Our team care approach, which brings faculty physicians together with residents, medical students, nurses, technicians and staff, is just one of the many benefits we are able to offer as an academic medical center.

All staff take part in the planning of performance improvement and patient safety measures for their respective areas and attend annual safety training. In addition, each clinical department maintains a quality improvement committee that reviews individual cases for issues and identifies opportunities to improve performance.