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Five stars for Tufts MC

Five orange stars

At Tufts Medical Center, we are Always Thinking Ahead. Five steps ahead, that is. Last night, Vizient (formerly known as University HealthSystem Consortium) announced that Tufts MC earned its top award of five stars for quality and patient safety in its annual, national study. We are among the top 10 adult academic medical centers (AMCs), and the only one in New England, to receive five stars and the Bernard A. Birnbaum, MD, Quality Leadership Award, out of 99 AMCs from across the US that participated in this year’s Vizient Quality and Accountability Study.

Teamwork for our patients

This achievement is due to the very hard work of all of our employees every day to improve how we are Always Thinking Ahead and caring for our patients and their families. Strong teamwork, reaching every level of our organization, propelled us to the top. The comprehensive Vizient study looks at data for safety, timeliness, effectiveness, efficiency, equity and patient centeredness—more than 100 measures in total, focused on adult patients. It is especially meaningful because this award compares us to other AMCs and is about getting all the parts of care right: quality, safety and patient experience.

Caring for our patients

The award is based on how well we care for patients and what type of outcomes patients seeking care with us have. The measures include surgical complications, length of stay and mortality rates, all of which are excellent, especially because we have a very high case mix index, meaning we do a terrific job of caring for very, very sick patients. Teams across Tufts MC and Floating Hospital work to document severity of illness, manage patient care, prevent avoidable readmissions, make sure data is flowing properly so it can be captured and keep an eye on all of the data so we can use it to continually improve, to name just a few. 

Vizient 5 Star Academic Medical Centers:

  1. Mayo Rochester
  2. Rush University
  3. NYU Langone
  4. University of Texas Galveston
  5. University of Kansas
  6. University of Pennsylvania
  7. University of Utah Health
  8. Houston Methodist
  9. Memorial Hermann
  10. Tufts Medical Center
  11. Morristown