URAC and The Leapfrog Group Announce Winners of the 2013 Hospital Website Transparency Awards Program
(PRWEB) December 04, 2013 -- URAC and The Leapfrog Group announced today the winners of the 2013 Hospital Website Transparency Awards Program. The two organizations have partnered for a second year to identify outstanding hospital websites that promote transparency of safety and quality measures in a manner that is useful and user-friendly for consumers. The winners were announced as part of The Leapfrog Group Annual Meeting taking place at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington, VA. All hospitals that completed a 2013 Leapfrog Hospital Survey and publicly report quality and/or safety metrics were eligible.
Eleven hospitals received the 2013 Hospital Website Transparency Award, and three hospitals received the Award with Distinction for going above and beyond in their work to promote hospital website transparency:
• Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
• Inova (Alexandria, Fair Oaks, Fairfax, Loudoun, Mount Vernon)
• Harlem Hospital Center
• Mercy Regional Medical Center
• Nationwide Children’s Hospital
• St. Mary Corwin Medical Center
• Texas Children’s Hospital
• WakeMed Health & Hospitals
• Baptist Health South Florida (with Distinction)
• JFK Medical Center (with Distinction)
• Kaiser Permanente (with Distinction)
“The Hospital Website Transparency Awards are a unique way for us to honor and showcase these hospitals that show initiative in protecting consumers through transparency and quality reporting,” said Kylanne Green, URAC President and CEO. “We are celebrating these hospitals who exhibit innovations and best practices, and it is encouraging to see so many hospitals that are committed to informing, protecting, and serving the community.”
“For the past two years, the Hospital Website Transparency Awards have recognized hospitals that have adapted and succeeded in the new era of health care consumerism,” said Leah Binder, President and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “They have designed websites that are informative, engaging, and user-friendly for the communities they serve. We applaud their commitment to innovation and healthcare transparency.”
The Hospital Website Transparency Awards criteria was developed in accordance with the National Quality Forum’s guidelines for consumer-focused, Internet-based public reporting of health performance data as well as the Model Public Report Elements prepared for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Hospitals that have received the award will be identifiable by the award seal on the hospital website. More information about the awards program can be found at https://www.urac.org/hospitalwebsiteawards/.
About URAC
URAC is a national accreditation leader, offering over 30 highly regarded accreditation programs that span the health care spectrum. Our programs are created and updated by independent industry-spanning experts to address the latest market trends and needs, exemplified by our recently launched Clinical Integration and Accountable Care Accreditation Programs. The nation’s leading Case Management Accreditor, URAC recently launched the enhanced Case Management Accreditation program which addresses the increased focus on improving care coordination across the evolving health care landscape. Our Health Plan Accreditation program carries HHS approval to accredit health plans on Exchanges in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. URAC’s accreditation programs are formally recognized by six federal agencies, as well as 48 states and the District of Columbia. For more information, visit http://www.urac.org.
About The Leapfrog Group
The Leapfrog Group is a voluntary program aimed at mobilizing employer purchasing power to alert America’s health industry that big leaps in health care safety, quality and customer value will be recognized and rewarded. Among other initiatives, 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. The Leapfrog Hospital Survey is the gold standard for comparing hospitals’ performance on the national standards of safety, quality, and efficiency that are most relevant to consumers and purchasers of care. For more information, visit http://www.leapfroggroup.org/.
Jessica Lutz, URAC, http://www.urac.org, +1 (202) 326-3967, [email protected]
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