ORANGE -- UC Irvine Medical Center has been selected for the 2008 Top Hospitals list based on the results of the Leapfrog Hospital Survey. More than 1,200 hospitals were surveyed for quality and safety, including performance in high-risk procedures, intensive care unit staffing and automation of medical orders to prevent errors.
"This recognition reflects our commitment to providing high-quality patient care," said Maureen Zehntner, medical center chief executive officer.
A study in the June issue of the Journal on Quality and Patient Safety found that hospitals that perform well on the Leapfrog Hospital Survey have lower mortality rates and better quality of care than those who didn't perform as well on the survey or who chose not to participate.
The Leapfrog Group is among several organizations recently to recognize the medical center's excellence. In July, UC Irvine Medical Center was included for the eighth consecutive year among the nation's best in U.S. News & World Report's Best Hospitals report and its programs in gynecology, urology and geriatrics were ranked among the top in the country. In August, the medical center's commitment to nursing excellence earned it a second designation as a Magnet hospital by the American Nurses Credentialing Center.
The Leapfrog Group was founded in 2000 by the Business Roundtable and is supported by its members, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Commonwealth Fund, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and other sources.
For more about the Leapfrog Hospital Survey: www.leapfroggroup.org/news/leapfrog_news/Top_Hospitals
About UC Irvine Medical Center: UC Irvine Medical Center is Orange County's only university research hospital, Level I trauma center, American College of Surgeons-verified regional burn center and National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center. It offers acute- and general-care service and opens its 482,000-square-foot new University Hospital in early 2009.
About the University of California, Irvine: The University of California, Irvine is a top-ranked university dedicated to research, scholarship and community service. Founded in 1965, UCI is among the fastest-growing University of California campuses, with more than 27,000 undergraduate and graduate students and nearly 2,000 faculty members. The third-largest employer in dynamic Orange County, UCI contributes an annual economic impact of $3.6 billion. For more UCI news, visit www.today.uci.edu.
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