UCI Medical Center named a national top performer for inpatient, outpatient care
Hospital is one of just five in the nation recognized for ambulatory care excellence
September 18, 2024
Orange, Calif. — UCI Medical Center, part of UCI Health, has been recognized as a top performer for high-quality inpatient and ambulatory care in the prestigious annual Vizient Inc. Quality and Accountability Study.
The academic medical center is one of just five facilities in the nation to be recognized as a top performer for demonstrating excellence in outpatient care in the 2024 Ambulatory Quality and Accountability Study. The medical center is also one of 115 facilities to be recognized as a top performer for inpatient care in the 2024 Bernard A. Birnbaum, MD, Quality Leadership Study.
“These rankings reflect the collective efforts of our amazing teammates who uphold and advance the highest standards in healthcare delivery,” said Chad T. Lefteris, president and CEO of UCI Health. “They demonstrate our commitment to improving health outcomes and enhancing patient care across all our services.”
Comprehensive assessment
The Vizient Quality and Accountability Study helps participating hospitals and health systems understand their performance against their peers and identifies structures and processes associated with high performance in quality and safety across a broad spectrum of patient care activity. The ratings in inpatient and ambulatory care are among the most comprehensive assessments of quality and safety a health system can face.
The recognition period is for work spanning July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024. It has been conducted every year since 2005.
For the ambulatory ranking, 63 medical centers were assessed in five areas: access to care, quality, efficiency, continuity and equity of care. The facilities were assessed for work spanning from July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024.
The inpatient study measures the quality of patient care in six areas: safety, mortality, effectiveness, efficiency, patient centeredness and equity. The study factors in measures from the Vizient Clinical Data Base and includes performance data from the HCAHPS survey and the CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network. It is based on rigorous assessments of safety, mortality, effectiveness, efficiency, patient centeredness and equity of care.
UCI Health is Orange County’s only academic health system and benchmarks its quality and safety performance against the nation’s top health systems.
“Leading hospitals are leveraging data and analytics to provide superior clinical outcomes,” said David Levine, chief medical officer for Vizient. “This award honors UCI Medical Center for demonstrating leadership focused on results and a culture of collaboration and adaptability that is necessary to succeed. It is a pleasure to congratulate UCI Medical Center on their achievement and commitment to delivering exceptional patient care.”
A reputation for quality
UCI Medical Center is consistently nationally recognized for quality and safety.
In 2023, the hospital was cited as a five-star hospital and a top 10 performer nationally in the 2023 Vizient, Inc. rankings. UCI Medical Center was rated in the top 10 for comprehensive academic medical centers in the U.S. for inpatient care. The UCI Health outpatient care network was also ranked among the top 10 ambulatory systems nationwide.
The medical center also achieved “A” grades in the fall 2023 and spring 2024 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade report. It is also one of a handful of U.S. hospitals to have achieved Magnet Recognition® for nursing excellence five times.
Historic expansion of access
Throughout 2024, UCI Health, one of the largest academic health systems in California, has been advancing its mission to provide access to high-quality care to the community.
Earlier this year, the health system acquired four community hospitals and associated ambulatory locations and created the UCI Health Community Network. The acquisition added 858 beds to the health system, bringing its total to 1,317 beds.
Also this year, the first buildings on the $1.3 billion UCI Health – Irvine campus opened their doors. The Joe C. Wen & Family Center for Advanced Care, a state-of-the-art multispecialty facility with 120 exam rooms, saw its first patients in April. The Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and Ambulatory Care building opened its doors in July, tripling the amount of space devoted to innovative cancer treatment and research at UCI Health.
A seven-story, 144-bed acute care hospital with a 24-hour emergency room will complete the campus when it opens in 2025.
UCI Health Rehabilitation Hospital, a two-story, 52-bed hospital, will also begin seeing patients in 2025. The facility will be structurally designed for the needs of patients who are received acute inpatient rehabilitation care for stroke, traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries, amputation and other injuries and disorders.
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About UCI Health
UCI Health, one of California’s largest academic health systems, is the clinical enterprise of the University of California, Irvine. The system comprises its main campus UCI Medical Center, a 459-bed, acute care hospital in Orange, Calif., four hospitals and affiliated physicians of the UCI Health Community Network in Orange and Los Angeles counties and ambulatory care centers across the region. Recognized as a Top Hospital by The Leapfrog Group, UCI Medical Center provides tertiary and quaternary care and is home to Orange County’s only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center, high-risk perinatal/neonatal program and American College of Surgeons-verified Level I adult and Level II pediatric trauma center, gold level 1 geriatric emergency department and regional burn center. UCI Health serves a region of nearly 4 million people in Orange County, western Riverside County and southeast Los Angeles County. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.
