Visionary Healthcare

Prologue: In late June, Poudre Valley Heath System and the University of Colorado Hospital announced that we intend to enter into a partnership to create a new health system. A quick update: The complex work necessary to create the new system is well underway and proceeding as planned. We’ll announce information as it becomes available over the next few months.

I want to extend a hearty congratulation to the staff and physicians of the University of Colorado Hospital for their hospital being recognized as the highest performing academic medical center in the nation by the University HealthSystem Consortium.

The announcement was made September 22 when the consortium announced its 2011 Quality Leadership Awards. Ten of the best academic medical hospitals in the nation received the award, with the University of Colorado Hospital at the most prestigious No. 1 position.

Congratulations to the University of Colorado Hospital for receiving the 2111 award for the nation's highest performing medical center

The award is based on patient experience and a variety of measures that include patient safety, clinical effectiveness, clinical efficiency, equity, patient centeredness, and mortality.

“The award is a testament to everyone at the hospital—from the executives and board members to the physicians to the nurses and support staff,” said Irene M. Thompson, the consortium’s president and CEO. “Earning this distinction is truly a team effort.”

I’d like to point out, too, that the national award came only two days after the University of Colorado Hospital was ranked as the healthiest employer among extra-large companies in the metropolitan Denver area. The recognition came from the Denver Business Journal, which annually identifies metro-area employees that are truly focused on their workers’ wellness.

Awards and recognition from independent organizations are important because they reiterate to our patients and members of the public that they have two of the nation’s finest healthcare providers easily within access: the University of Colorado Hospital and Poudre Valley Health System.

PVHS is the recipient of the nation’s leading award for the best-performing organizations, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. This award, created by congress, honors performance excellence, leadership, strategic planning, knowledge and process management, customer service, and clinical, regulatory and financial results.

In 2008, Vice President Biden presented the award to PVHS, one of only three organizations and the only healthcare organization to receive the award that year. The Baldrige Award is the capstone honor of more than 70 national awards that PVHS has received for patient care and other accomplishments during the last five years. Among those awards is an annual recognition during the last four years as one of the nation’s Best Places to Work. PVH will receive this year’s Best Places to Work award October 18 at Modern Healthcare’s convention in Chicago.

In the case of the University of Colorado Hospital and PVHS, national and local recognition reinforces the message that Bruce Schroffel, president and CEO of the University of Colorado Hospital, and I emphasized when we made our announcement about partnering through a new health system:

The new health system will truly be a joining of equals. It combines the clinical and financial strengths of each institution to ensure the continued delivery of unparalleled quality care in Colorado, the Rocky Mountain region and the nation. In partnership, we will push the boundaries of medicine forward by advancing the ways to treat patients.

So, I would like to again congratulate the University of Colorado Hospital on its two recent honors. They are highly deserved and they emphasize to all that the new health system we are creating will provide the best possible health care for our patients.

Rulon