Upper Chesapeake Health Hospitals Earn ‘Top Performer on Key Quality Measures’ Recognition

From University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health:

University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health (UM UCH) announced that both of its hospitals—UM Harford Memorial Hospital (UM HMH) and UM Upper Chesapeake Medical Center (UM UCMC)—have individually been recognized as a 2013 Top Performer on Key Quality Measures® by The Joint Commission, the leading accreditor of health care organizations in the United States.

UM UCMC was recognized as part of The Joint Commission’s 2014 annual report, “America’s Hospitals: Improving Quality and Safety,” for attaining and sustaining excellence in heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care. UM HMH was recognized for its achievements in heart attack, pneumonia and surgical care. UM HMH and UM UCMC are two of only 1,224 hospitals in the United States to achieve the 2013 Top Performer distinction.

The Top Performer program recognizes hospitals for improving performance on evidence-based interventions that increase the chances of healthy outcomes for patients with certain conditions, including heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, surgical care, children’s asthma, stroke, venous thromboembolism and perinatal care, as well as for inpatient psychiatric services and immunizations.

To be a 2013 Top Performer, hospitals had to meet three performance criteria based on 2013 accountability measure data, including:

– Achieving cumulative performance of 95 percent or above across all reported accountability measures;

– Achieving performance of 95 percent or above on each and every reported accountability measure where there were at least 30 denominator cases; and

– Having at least one core measure set that had a composite rate of 95 percent or above, and (within that measure set) all applicable individual accountability measures had a performance rate of 95 percent or above.

“Delivering the right treatment in the right way at the right time is a cornerstone of high-quality health care. I commend the efforts of University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health for its excellent performance on the use of evidence-based interventions,” said Mark R. Chassin, M.D., FACP, M.P.P., M.P.H., president and CEO, The Joint Commission.

Lyle Sheldon, president and CEO of UM UCH, said, “We understand what matters most to our patients is the quality and safety of the care they receive. That is why we have made it a top priority to improve positive patient outcomes through evidence-based care processes.” He added, “Our hospitals are proud to each be named a Top Performer which recognizes the knowledge, teamwork and dedication of our entire hospital staff.”

For more information about the Top Performer program, visit http://www.jointcommission.org/accreditation/top_performers.aspx.