UCLA Health System Earns Green Light for Focus on People, Quality and Service

In our continual efforts to provide leading-edge healthcare, UCLA hospitals have implemented a “dashboard” process that compares performance in key areas to internal benchmarks and to state and national quality goals.

Measurement tools include employee/staff satisfaction, clinical care delivery, operational effectiveness and patient satisfaction. The dashboard is based on a simple stoplight color scheme, with “green” indicating excellent work to be maintained, “yellow” signifying a need for additional focus, and “red” indicating a need for intervention and improvement.

The process seems to be paying off. Staff turnover rates have dropped below target levels in response to facility, operational and training initiatives designed to help UCLA hospitals rank among the nation’s best places to work. Clinical care improvement efforts to reduce complications such as infections have reduced catheterassociated blood stream infections to 0.8 infections per 1,000 central venous catheter days, which represents approximately a 67 percent decline from two years ago and compares favorably to national benchmarks. In addition, patient satisfaction has improved markedly during the past two years. Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center ranks in the 92nd percentile nationally in customer satisfaction, up from the 38th percentile two years ago, with some units, such as 8 North, ranking in the 99th percentile nationally. Similarly, patients rank the Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital Emergency Department and fastER services in the 92nd and 99th percentiles in the nation, respectively.

“Our vision for care delivery is no less than to heal humankind, one patient at a time. Improvements in our dashboard demonstrate that the hard work of our team is appreciated and our patients are truly singing our praises,” states Amir Dan Rubin, Chief Operating Officer, UCLA Hospital System.