Shands at UF among nation's top performance-improvement leaders

Shands at the University of Florida this week was named one of the nation’s performance improvement leaders by Thomson Reuters, a provider of information and tools for clinical- and business-performance improvement in the healthcare industry.

Shands at UF and its senior management team were recognized for being one of 100 hospitals making the greatest progress in improving hospital-wide performance over five consecutive years, 2002-06. Hospitals listed in the 2007 Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals: Performance Improvement Leaders study have set national benchmarks for the rate and consistency of improvement in clinical outcomes, safety, hospital efficiency and financial stability. Findings from the study appear in the Aug. 11 issue of Modern Healthcare magazine.

“Receiving the Performance Improvement Leaders award is a tribute to the UF physicians, Shands nurses, technicians and other staff who consistently work to strengthen the hospital’s performance and to provide excellent service to our patients,” said Georgiann Ellis, Shands at UF vice president of operations. “It serves as further reinforcement that we are on the right path as we strive to improve patient-care outcomes, and ultimately, enhance the quality of life for the residents living in the communities we serve.”

Shands at UF is one of eight hospitals in Florida to make the 2007 list. The academic medical center is Florida’s leader for healthcare referrals, serving patients from every county in the state, throughout the nation and from more than a dozen countries. Shands at UF earned top-50 rankings in 11 specialties in U.S.News & World Report’s 2008 edition of America’s Best Hospitals. Other recent achievements include earning American Nurses Credentialing Center’s “Magnet” status – the nursing profession’s most prestigious national honor for excellence – and being designated a “primary stroke center” by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration. Additionally, Shands HealthCare won the 2008 Governor’s Sterling Award – the state’s top honor for performance excellence.

“This study identifies superior leadership, based on the success of hospital executive teams’ long-term strategies for strengthening performance,” said Jean Chenoweth, senior vice president for performance improvement and 100 Top Hospitals programs at Thomson Reuters. “These are true ‘good to great’ leadership teams that have focused on improving quality, efficiency, use of evidence-based medicine and financial stability in order to better serve their patients and communities.”

The Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals: Performance Improvement Leaders study analyzed acute-care hospitals nationwide using empirical performance data from years 2002-06. The study rated hospitals on eight factors — patient mortality, medical complications, patient safety, length of stay, expenses, profitability, cash-to-debt ratio and use of evidence-based medicine. Researchers evaluated 2,867 short-term, acute-care, hospitals grouped into five categories: major teaching hospitals, other teaching hospitals, large community hospitals, medium-sized community hospitals and small community hospitals.

Additional information about the study is available at www.100tophospitals.com.