For the third consecutive year, NYU Langone Medical Center, which includes Tisch Hospital and the Hospital for Joint Diseases (HJD), scored number one for overall patient safety and quality among 102 leading academic medical centers (AMCs) across the nation that were included in the University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC) 2015 Quality and Accountability Study.
The top-performing AMCs have won the “Bernard A. Birnbaum, MD, Quality Leadership Award,” formerly named the UHC Quality Leadership Award, for demonstrated excellence in high-priority patient care areas. NYU Langone achieved five stars for its overall performance and ranked number one in the domains of mortality, effectiveness, and equity.
In addition, NYU Langone ranked number one on UHC’s inaugural 2015 Ambulatory Care Quality and Accountability Leadership Award. This award recognizes academic medical centers and their affiliated providers who demonstrate excellence in delivering high-quality, patient-centered, efficient, and effective outpatient care.
“NYU Langone is dedicated to providing our patients with the most advanced, comprehensive, and compassionate care available across our entire health system, creating a single standard of care,” said Robert I. Grossman, MD, dean and CEO of NYU Langone Medical Center. “I am incredibly proud of our entire staff, including those within our growing ambulatory network, for achieving these significant recognitions from the UHC.”
The Bernard A. Birnbaum, MD, Quality Leadership Award
The “Bernard A. Birnbaum, MD, Quality Leadership Award,” honors the legacy of former NYU Langone Chief of Hospital Operations and UHC board member, Dr. Birnbaum, who passed away on September 14, 2015, after a long battle with cancer.
Dr. Birnbaum helped NYU Langone achieve many accolades during his tenure, including its consistent number one UHC Quality and Accountability Study ranking. This recognition is especially impressive as it was first awarded to NYU Langone just one year after Hurricane Sandy caused severe disruptions to the main campus. “It was an achievement no one thought possible, and one for which Dr. Birnbaum was most proud,” added Dr. Grossman.
UHC’s Quality and Accountability Study
UHC is an alliance of the nation’s leading nonprofit AMCs that are focused on delivering world-class patient care. For nearly 30 years, UHC has been a catalyzing force in supporting AMCs in their efforts—driving the advancement of patient care, medical knowledge, and financial performance by coming together to candidly discuss their ideas and vision.
Conducted annually since 2005, UHC's Quality and Accountability Study ranks participating AMCs for their performance across a range of key patient safety and quality indicators including mortality, effectiveness, safety, equity, patient centeredness, and efficiency.
The UHC scorecard is a unique analysis that does not rely exclusively on hospital claims data, which are known to have limitations for quality and safety measurement, and it does not rely on subjective reputation scores. The composite scoring system uses a comprehensive approach to analyzing patient-level data from the UHC Clinical Data Base/Resource Manager™, the UHC Core Measures Data Base, the publicly reported Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Healthcare Safety Network. It also employs a robust risk adjustment system, to assure fairness for measurement of outcomes such as mortality, length of stay, and cost.
NYU Langone Continues to Excel Across Spectrum of Care
NYU Langone continues to be recognized for its overall quality of care. Of note, earlier this year NYU Langone was also named to U.S. News & World Report’s 2015–2016 “Best Hospitals Honor Roll,” as one of the top hospitals in the country, as well as recognized with 12 nationally ranked specialties, including top 10 rankings in orthopaedics, rheumatology, rehabilitation, neurology and neurosurgery, and geriatrics.
In addition, the Medical Center’s flagship Tisch Hospital and Rusk Rehabilitation earned Magnet designation for nursing excellence for the third time in a row. Rusk was also re-accredited through September 2016 by The Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF), an international accrediting body focused on helping organizations measure and improve the quality of their inpatient rehabilitation programs, validating the organization’s drive to meet and exceed nationally and internationally accepted standards of care.
Media Inquiries
Deborah (DJ) Haffeman
Phone: 212-404-3567
deborah.haffeman@nyumc.org