Quality Measures

At UPMC in central Pa., nothing is more important than making sure our patients get the right care at the right time in the right way — every time. Our dedicated doctors, nurses, and staff constantly review our processes for continual improvement, introducing new ideas and implementing best practices to enhance our already excellent record of care. We measure our performance against the best hospitals nationwide, resulting in outcomes that let you, our patient, know how well we are performing.

Disease Specific Measures

We invite you to take some time to review our quality measures and initiatives. Our goal is to not only provide you with the highest quality of care, but also to empower you to make confident and well-informed health care decisions. We focus on the management of:

• Diabetes
• Heart Attack
• Heart Failure
• Infections
• Sepsis
• Stroke
• Venous thromboembolism (VTE)

To understand how we are doing our efforts, we regularly evaluate our success rates by measuring our data for these conditions against the average for all reporting hospitals in the United States. You can find more data and quality measures from our hospitals and other hospitals through the organizations listed below. 

Quality-Related Organizations

Government agencies and a variety of special interest groups provide quality data on health care services. These organizations use a wide range of methodologies to rank health care institutions and physicians based on quality. The rankings are available on the Internet or through publications available for purchase. Visit these sites to get additional data and compare hospitals: 

• The Joint Commission evaluates and accredits more than 15,000 health care organizations. Accreditation from this independent, nonprofit organization is a recognized symbol of quality and demonstrates an organization’s achievement of performance standards. Accreditation by The Joint Commission requires successful completion of an on-site survey at least every three years.
• Hospital Compare is part of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Quality Initiative. The Hospital Quality Initiative uses a variety of tools to help stimulate and support improvements in the quality of care delivered by hospitals.
• The Leapfrog Group is a voluntary program aimed at mobilizing employer purchasing power and rewarding organizations that deliver safety, quality and customer value. Leapfrog works with its employer members to encourage transparency and easy access to health care information as well as rewards for hospitals that have a proven record of high-quality care

Contact Us

Understanding data on quality of care can be confusing. We encourage you to discuss your questions or concerns with your doctor. You can also contact the UPMC Performance Improvement Department at 717-231-8469.