Among the best in the U.S.: New award recognizes U-M Health System for high-quality, safe care

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Dec. 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Patients who choose the University of Michigan Health System for their care have one more reason to be confident in their choice.

Today, an independent national group once again named UMHS among the safest and highest-quality hospitals in the United States. Only 66 other hospitals earned the Top Hospitals designation from the Leapfrog Group, a national leader in evaluating hospital care based on a wide range of criteria.

It's the third year in a row, and the fourth overall, that UMHS has made the Leapfrog Top Hospitals list. Last week, UMHS also earned an "A" grade from Leapfrog in its second-ever Hospital Safety Score evaluation.

"This sustained level of high performance on Leapfrog's ratings is due to the diligent work of our faculty and staff, who give our patients both the care and the safe environment they deserve," says Doug Strong, MBA, the chief executive officer of the U-M Hospitals and Health Centers. "That they achieve this while caring for some of the most complex and acutely ill patients in the country is remarkable."

UMHS is one of only five hospitals in the country to earn both Leapfrog Top Hospital honors and recognition from U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals for clinical excellence.

The chief medical officer of UMHS, Darrell Campbell, Jr., M.D., who has led a decade-long charge to make UMHS the safest health care provider in the country, notes the importance of the "safety culture" across UMHS.

"All of us are committed to doing the right thing because it's the right thing to do, not because someone is watching us," he says. "We've evolved a culture that values reporting and fixing even the tiniest detail that could improve safety. No hospital is perfect, but we work to be open and honest about problem areas, to look for ways to prevent them, and to address them quickly so they don't occur again."

The new Leapfrog Top Hospital list is drawn from more than 1,200 general acute care hospitals around the country that submitted extensive data to Leapfrog. UMHS is also one of only 7 hospitals in Michigan to receive Top Hospital honors.

To see the details of UMHS performance on the Leapfrog assessment, and to compare UMHS with other hospitals, see http://www.leapfroggroup.org/cp . To see the safety profile for UMHS and other hospitals on Leapfrog's Hospital Safety Score site, visit http://www.hospitalsafetyscore.org . For even more data about UMHS care for specific conditions, patient safety performance, and the ratings that patients give of their experience at UMHS, see http://www.uofmhealth.org/quality .

SOURCE University of Michigan Health System