Cincinnati Children’s Recognized for Transparency on its Website

Friday, February 15, 2013

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center has received the Acknowledgement of Excellence in Hospital Website Transparency from URAC and The Leapfrog Group. The Acknowledgement comes as part of an overall Excellence in Hospital Website Transparency Awards Program, which identifies outstanding hospital websites promoting transparency of safety and quality measures in a manner that is useful and user-friendly for consumers.

“URAC commends Cincinnati Children’s for applying for and receiving the Acknowledgement of Excellence in Hospital Website Transparency,” said Jane Webster, URAC Senior Vice President, Research, Development and Planning. “It is encouraging to see Cincinnati Children’s commitment to transparency and quality reporting, and their dedication to improving the lives of the consumers they serve.”

The Acknowledgement of Excellence in Hospital Website Transparency is an evaluation of a hospital’s overall website transparency including elements related to design, credibility, literacy and connectivity.

Cincinnati Children’s began to focus intensively on quality improvement work more than a decade ago. During the past two years, the medical center has dramatically increased efforts to provide patients and families easy access to information about quality and safe care on www.cincinnatichildrens.org.

The website transparency strategy is premised on three main ideas:

• Transparency encourages inquiry and learning by providing all levels of the organization access to the same performance data and empowers employees to act upon it and improve.
• Sharing information externally promotes an open and collaborative healthcare environment and invites others beyond our medical center to partner and explore new opportunities to improve child health.
• Making the data available meets and exceeds the expectations of families and helps support their healthcare decisions.

The content on the Outcomes and Quality Improvement section of the website includes: performance data on patient and employee safety; patient and family experience; clinical outcomes; access, flow and productivity; and nursing turnover. In addition to hospital-level measures, a number of condition-specific outcomes and best evidence statements and clinical guidelines are shared.

Cincinnati Children’s will be formally recognized during Leapfrog’s annual Regional Roll-Out meeting on March 14 in Philadelphia.

About Cincinnati Children’s

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center is third in the nation in U.S.News and World Report’s 2012 Best Children’s Hospitals ranking. It is ranked #1 for neonatology and in the top 10 for all pediatric specialties. Cincinnati Children’s is one of the top two recipients of pediatric research grants from the National Institutes of Health. It is internationally recognized for improving child health and transforming delivery of care through fully integrated, globally recognized research, education and innovation. Additional information can be found at www.cincinnatichildrens.org.

About URAC

URAC is an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes health care quality through its accreditation, education and measurement programs. The URAC Health Web Site Accreditation program outlines a framework of best practices that address the operational policies and procedures necessary for quality online operations, and ensures the quality of health care information for consumers. URAC offers a wide range of quality benchmarking programs and services that keep pace with the rapid changes in the health care system and provide a symbol of excellence for organizations to validate their commitment to quality and accountability. Through its broad-based governance structure and an inclusive standards development process, URAC ensures that all stakeholders are represented in establishing meaningful quality measures for the entire health care industry. For more information, visit www.urac.org, follow us on twitter, or visit our page on LinkedIn.

About The Leapfrog Group

The Leapfrog Group (www.leapfroggroup.org) is a national nonprofit organization using the collective leverage of large purchasers of health care to initiate breakthrough improvements in the safety, quality, and affordability of health care for Americans. The flagship Leapfrog Hospital Survey allows purchasers to structure their contracts and purchasing to reward the highest performing hospitals. The Leapfrog Group was founded in November 2000 with support from the Business Roundtable and national funders, and is now independently operated with support from its purchaser and other members.