UNC Hospitals named one of 41 top hospitals on Leapfrog 2007 Top Hospitals list

Sept. 21, 2007

UNC Hospitals named one of 41 top hospitals on Leapfrog 2007 Top Hospitals list

CHAPEL HILL - UNC Hospitals has been named one of the 41 best in the United States, based on results from the second Leapfrog Hospital Quality and Safety Survey. UNC Hospitals is the only hospital in North Carolina that made the Leapfrog 2007 Top Hospitals list.

The survey, a national rating system that offers a broad assessment of a hospital’s quality and safety, was conducted by The Leapfrog Group, an organization that promotes improvements in the safety, quality and affordability of health care for Americans.
     
"About three years ago, we placed an increased emphasis on quality at UNC Health Care, and the results of those efforts are more and more apparent,” said Dr. William L. Roper, chief executive officer of the UNC Health Care System, dean of the UNC School of Medicine and UNC’s vice chancellor for medical affairs. “This recognition by Leapfrog is yet another wonderful benchmark that indicates we are moving in the right direction. Close attention to quality is at the heart of everything we do here for our patients and their families."
     
The Leapfrog 2007 Top Hospitals list is based on 1,285 hospitals that responded to the Leapfrog Hospital Quality and Safety Survey as of August 31, 2007. Data is collected from hospitals on their progress toward implementing practices in four categories:

1. Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE): Do physicans enter patient prescriptions and other orders into computers linked to error prevention software?
2. ICU Physician Staffing (IPS): Are intensive care units staffed by trained ICU specialists (intensivists)?
3. Evidence Based Hospital Referral (EBHR): How well do hospitals perform seven high-risk procedures and care for three high-risk neonatal conditions?
4. Leapfrog Safe Practices Score (LSPS): How well are hospitals progressing on the other 27 National Quality Forum-endorsed Safe Practices?
     
Top Hospitals fully meet Leapfrog’s standard for ICU Physician Staffing (IPS) and the Safe Practices Score (SPS) and either of the following: (1) Two or more of the eight Evidence Based Hospital Referral (EBHR) areas; or, (2) Computerized Physician Order Entry plus one of the eight EBHR areas.
     
For additional information, visit www.leapfroggroup.org.
     
The Leapfrog survey is the latest of several ranking schemes that show UNC Hospitals among the top 50 in the country. Multiple specialties offered at UNC Hospitals have been ranked among the top 50 in the annual “America’s Best Hospitals” issue of U.S. News & World Report magazine every year for 14 years in a row.

Media contact: Lynn Wooten, (919) 966-6046 or lwooten@unch.unc.edu.

ABOUT UNC HEALTH CARE
The UNC Health Care System is a not-for-profit integrated health care system owned by the state of North Carolina and based in Chapel Hill. It exists to further the teaching mission of the University of North Carolina and to provide state-of-the-art patient care. UNC Health Care is comprised of UNC Hospitals, ranked consistently among the best medical centers in the country; the UNC School of Medicine, a nationally eminent research institution; community practices; home health and hospice services in seven central North Carolina counties; and Rex Healthcare and its provider network in Wake County.