UF Health Jacksonville’s ranking among academic medical centers in the United States has jumped significantly in 2017, with the hospital rising 33 spots in the latest Vizient rankings.
UF Health Jacksonville is now ranked 44th in the country, with major improvements in five of the six categories measured. The hospital improved in the areas of mortality, effectiveness, safety, efficiency and equity.
The Vizient Quality and Accountability study is recognized as the most rigorous and credible analysis of its kind. Vizient, formerly UHC, analyzes data from more than 100 academic health centers and 124 community hospitals. It assesses dozens of measures in the six categories and includes patient satisfaction data from the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems, or HCAHPS, surveys.
“This dramatic improvement is incredibly satisfying because it’s proof that our determined focus on quality is paying off,” said Russ Armistead, CEO of UF Health Jacksonville. “This is a testament to the hard work of our faculty and staff, who continue to put patients and families first.”
UF Health Jacksonville’s improvement over the past several years has been dramatic in many areas of patient safety. Since 2014, the hospital has seen a 52 percent decrease in its mortality index, a 66 percent decrease in central line infections, a 74 percent decrease in urinary tract infections, a 57 percent decrease in pressure ulcers, a 78 percent decrease in respiratory failure, a 70 percent decrease in surgical infections and an 88 percent decrease in bleeding events.
“Everyone who is a part of UF Health should be proud of this achievement because it shows the work they do every day is paying off,” said Leon L. Haley Jr., MD, MHSA, dean of the University of Florida College of Medicine – Jacksonville. “This organization has made it a priority to improve patient outcomes, and without a doubt we continue to move in the right direction.”
UF Health Jacksonville, which is ranked a 3-star hospital by Vizient, made significant gains in recent years and achieved national recognition for some, including the development and use of Azreal, a sepsis alert program that uses software to scan the vital signs of every patient and notifies physicians and nurses when someone is at risk of developing sepsis. The hospital was awarded the inaugural Vizient Innovation Excellence Award in 2016 because of its ability to use technology to enhance the delivery of patient care.
“UF Health has always made it a priority to provide the most effective, compassionate care possible, and this is just another example of how we are doing it,” said Kelly Gray-Eurom, MD, MMM, chief quality officer for UF Health Jacksonville. “Each one of these improvements means we are saving more lives, which is the goal of every health care organization.”
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Kelly R. Gray-Eurom, MD, MMM, FACEP
Professor
Chief Quality Officer, UF Health Jacksonville; Assistant Dean for Quality and Safety; Associate Chair and Director, Business Operations, Department of Emergency Medicine