In June, Rush University Medical Center was chosen as a recipient of the 2009 Premier Award for Quality, which recognizes health care organizations that efficiently provide outstanding patient care and consistently set the standard in clinical excellence. Rush was the only hospital in Illinois and one of only 23 hospitals out of more than 3,796 eligible hospitals nationwide to receive the award.
The award is given by Premier, a health care alliance of more than 2,100 hospitals and 58,000 other healthcare sites in the United States dedicated to improving health care quality and affordability. Premier maintains the nation’s most comprehensive repository of clinical, financial and outcomes information and operates a leading health care purchasing network.
All acute-care inpatient facilities in the nation that submitted data to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) — the federal agency that administers Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program — and to the CMS Hospital Compare project were considered for the Award for Quality. Using 2007 CMS data, Premier assessed each hospital’s quality and efficiency to determine the recipients for this year’s award.
Quality was measured in terms of the frequency of three negative patient outcomes — mortality, morbidity and complications — and efficiency was based on length of stay for all patients treated. The hospitals also were evaluated for their processes of care, which ensure that all patients receive the same standard of care.
The Award for Quality is particularly meaningful because like the University HealthSystem Consortium’s annual Quality and Accountability Study, which consistently has ranked Rush among the top 10 academic medical centers, it is based on objective data about how well we provide care. Being chosen for the Premier award affirms that Rush is among the nation’s leading hospitals and strives to deliver the highest level of medical care efficiently and consistently.
At Rush, every patient room and care facility is a classroom to train tomorrow's health care professionals. Recognition of the Medical Center's quality of care and patient safety reflects the high quality training Rush's students receive there.
