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 2007, the UC Davis Medical Center exceeded the Leapfrog Group standards for patient outcome and minimum volumes, including high-risk deliveries, neonatal intensive care, bariatric surgery, and coronary bypass surgery.  Top marks were also achieved for intensivist ICU staffing and 11 other measures of patient safety. 
  
  
• UC Davis Medical Center exceeds national norms in a number of quality control measures tracked by both the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Hospital Quality Alliance. The federal government’s Hospital Compare program tracked data related to four conditions — heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical infection — and UC Davis Medical Center exceeded the criteria for 13 of 23 standards and protocols in 2007.
  
  
• UC Davis Medical Center also participates in CalHospitalCompare, a statewide rating system operated by the California Healthcare Foundation.  In 2007 the medical center was rated superior or above average on five measures, below average on three.
  
  
• UC Davis Medical Center scored the maximum five stars for a “best” rating in HealthGrades, Inc. 2007 measure for hospitalized patients surviving a gastrointestinal bleed.  It scored three stars for an “as expected” rating in the overwhelming majority of the other the clinical categories monitored.  These ratings are based on an independent analysis of medical outcomes data from 2003 through 2005.
  
  
• UC Davis Medical Center was among the nation’s hospitals participating in a campaign to reduce the number of preventable deaths by 100,000, the 100K Lives Campaign, sponsored by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.  UC Davis Medical Center has seen superior outcomes improvement in the last 6 years in spite of having patient acuity consistently more than 50 percent higher than community hospitals.

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.