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The Center For Physician Education

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July 16, 2024 

Team,

U.S. News & World Report rankings of Best Hospitals for 2024-25 again name IU Health Medical Center the #1 hospital in Indiana. Congratulations and thank you for making this meaningful recognition possible as we strive to be the best in the nation in all we do for our patients and community.  

I am delighted to share a few new accolades earned this year made possible by your attention and focus on improving care.    

The following 9 specialties saw significant improvement in their overall rankings: 

• Cancer 

• Cardiology, Heart and Vascular Surgery 

• Diabetes and Endocrinology 

• Ear, Nose and Throat 

• Gastroenterology and GI Surgery 

• Geriatrics 

• Neurology and Neurosurgery 

• Obstetrics and Gynecology 

• Orthopedics 

These 4 specialties ranked as high performing: 

The medical center was recognized as Best Regional Hospital for Equitable Access. This is a new recognition category for USNWR, highlighting the important and necessary work hospitals are doing to improve care for underserved communities. USNWR defines equitable access as “success in caring for patients in historically underserved communities while maintaining high quality care.” Regional in this case is defined by major metropolitan areas in each state. Only 16% of Best Regional Hospitals earned this award. 

Please see the list of procedures and conditions ranked high performing for Common Care and other noteworthy ratings recognized around the state.

IU Health supports the Best Hospitals program and recognizes the value placed on the rankings by patients when making healthcare decisions, and by our team when making employment and training decisions.?The Adult AHC has invested tremendously in strengthening our programs and improving future results. Here are just a few of the initiatives launched this year:  
 

• The Adult AHC revamped the USWNR Steering Committee, appointing physician leaders to set and monitor our strategy and included key stakeholders. 
• Quarterly meetings were held by specialty to discuss specialty-specific data, identify trends, and create action plans?, as well as improve documentation to accurately reflect the acuity of our patients. 
• Targeted efforts to increase voting and increase registered Doximity profiles to improve our reputation status.  
• IU Health physician representation, including Lana Dbeibo, MD, on USNWR Expert Panel on Transfer and Observation Cases?. And I served on the USNWR Hospital Data Insights Committee.  
• Connected with other academic medical centers to learn best practices in program development and initiatives. 

While we should all be proud of the improved ranking results, there is much work to do. Here are 2 ways you can help us continue to see improvement:  

• Performance rankings rely heavily on the data we provide. The Clinical Documentation Integrity team is reviewing patient charts and will send providers a message via Cerner when they have questions or have identified potential gaps in documentation. I ask that you respond to these queries within 48 hours as they can help us accurately reflect the patient care you provide.? 
• USNWR considers many elements of patient care in their rankings, including quality and safety data and our patient experience scores. Remain diligent on our quality improvements and delivering on what matters most to our patients.?? 

The partnership across the AAHC, IU Health and the IU School of Medicine is strong, and I look forward to sharing more information as our progress continues.

If you have questions or want to submit news to be included in this publication, email us.

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