CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--UHC announced today the winners of the inaugural UHC Ambulatory Care Quality and Accountability Leadership Award. The award is given to academic medical centers that demonstrate excellence in delivering high-quality, patient-centered, efficient, and effective outpatient care. The winners were honored in a ceremony at the UHC Annual Conference 2015 in Orlando, Fla, which was attended by nearly 2,000 people, including health care professionals from more than 200 UHC member organizations.
The 2015 winners are:
- NYU Langone Medical Center
- University of Utah Health Care and University of Utah Medical Group
- Penn Medicine, Clinical Practices of the University of Pennsylvania
- UW Health
- Emory Clinic
“Academic medical centers and their affiliated providers are being challenged to better manage their outpatient services as new payment and care delivery models place an increasing emphasis on the cost, quality, and accessibility of care,” said Bob Browne, vice president, Clinical Enterprise Integration. “The data suggest we have a long way to go, but as recipients of the Ambulatory Care Quality and Accountability Leadership Award, these organizations exhibit significantly better performance than the rest in critical areas needed to meet this growing demand while maintaining high-quality care.”
The Ambulatory Care Quality and Accountability Study assessed data from nearly 60% of all eligible academic medical centers and measured performance in five domains: access to care, capacity management and throughput, quality and efficiency, continuum of care, and equity.
The composite scoring system used patient-level data from the UHC-AAMC Faculty Practice Solutions Center®, UHC’s new Access Initiative, the UHC Core Measures database, and the UHC Operational Data Base, as well as data from members’ Quality and Resource Use Reports from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
“The inaugural Ambulatory Care Quality and Accountability Study represents a significant milestone for UHC and its members,” said Julie Cerese, senior vice president, Performance Improvement. “Designed with extensive input from UHC members, the study aligns with the guiding principles and rigorous methodology established by UHC’s traditional Quality and Accountability Study, which was first conducted in 2005. Together, these studies help members identify structures and practices that are associated with high performance across the continuum of care.”
About UHC
Effective April 1, 2015, VHA, the national health care network of not-for-profit hospitals, and UHC, the alliance of the nation’s leading academic medical centers, combined to form the largest member-owned health care company in the country. The combined organization includes Novation, the health care services company already jointly owned by VHA and UHC. The new entity is dedicated to leading health care innovation, creating knowledge, and fostering collaboration to help members thrive.
