Rush University Medical Center has again been named one of the nation’s top performing hospitals by Vizient, a health care performance improvement company that more than 1,300 hospitals rely on to analyze and benchmark data provided directly from their electronic medical records.
Rush was ranked No. 2 in the country in Vizient’s 2024 Quality and Accountability Study, the only hospital rating system that relies solely on patient outcome data for all inpatients.
The study compares hospitals in six areas of care: safety, mortality, effectiveness, efficiency, patient centeredness and equity of care. This is the 11th consecutive year Rush has earned the distinction of being among the top 10 for inpatient care, and Rush is one of only two Illinois academic medical centers on Vizient’s Top 10 list for 2024.
Rush also ranked fifth in the Vizient Ambulatory Quality and Accountability Award, which measures the quality of outpatient care in five domains: access to care, continuum of care, quality, efficiency and equity.
“Year after year, being recognized as delivering the best care available in the country is not just a point of pride for everyone at Rush, it is what defines and connects us,” said Dr. Omar Lateef, president and CEO of Rush University System for Health and Rush University Medical Center. “But where ratings and rankings matter most is how they help patients navigate the health care system. Our sustained success demonstrates that we have a culture that puts the patient first.”
“Quality has different meanings to different people, and those definitions can be highly personalized. At Rush we strive to deliver safe, effective and timely care in a way that not only meets but exceeds patients and their families' expectations,” said Dr. Brian Stein, the medical center’s chief quality officer. "Our national reputation as a top hospital for quality is not incidental. It takes an extraordinary team of health care providers to coordinate and deliver the high-quality care our patients deserve and expect.”
Objective, current and timely data makes Vizient best reflection of care
Stein points out that scoring so well on the Vizient Quality and Accountability Study is especially meaningful because Vizient is unique in using objective data from all inpatients a hospital treats. Among its other attributes:
- Vizient does not factor in reputation. While other rankings rely heavily on opinion surveys, Vizient’s study is entirely based on data.
- The rating uses current data. Scores reflect care provided from June 2023 to June 2024, while other ratings typically rely on claims data that can be 18 to 24 months old.
- It encompasses all patients. This study compares outcomes for all inpatients regardless of insurance while other ratings only include patients covered by Medicare.
- The ranking compares similarly sized hospitals. Vizient groups hospitals by four subtypes, so large academic medical centers like Rush are compared with hospitals that have similar volumes and perform a similar range of procedures.
While the data used by Vizient drew from specific patients treated at Rush’s downtown academic medical center campus, the commitment to the best possible care is a promise made systemwide, said Dr. Paul Casey, Rush’s chief medical officer. “Rush is Rush regardless of how and where patients choose to access care. Our physicians, nurses and staff often treat patients at several of the Rush hospitals and clinics in Chicago, the suburbs and Northwest Indiana. But no matter where we are, the commitment to provide the best possible care is who they are and is what connects and drives us.”
Only three U.S. hospitals consistently rank as high as Rush
While Rush prioritizes Vizient as the most accurate and objective of the various organizations that provide hospital ratings, different methodologies provide valuable insight into how well hospitals perform, and Rush also is one of only four hospitals in the country to consistently be rated as a top performer across them all. For the last five years, only Rush, the Mayo Clinic, Houston Methodist and New York University Hospitals have achieved all of the following:
- Been named to the U.S. News & World Report Honor Roll
- Earned five stars from the federal government’s Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services Hospital Compare evaluations
- Earned straight A’s on Leapfrog’s Quality and Safety report card
- Been in the top 10 in Vizient’s Quality and Accountability Study
“No matter which way quality and safety are measured, every rating agency comes to the same conclusion,” Lateef said. “Rush provides some of the best health care in the country.”
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