UW Medicine earns award for steps to improve care, cut costs
National physicians group honors healthcare organizations’ achievements toward a better care model.
The American Medical Group Association (AMGA), which represents physicians in group practices, has named UW Medicine as a recipient of its 2019 Acclaim Award.
The honor recognizes high-performing U.S. healthcare organizations that best align with the Institute of Medicine’s aims for quality improvement and the Commonwealth Fund Commission on High Performance Health System’s care-delivery ideals – notably:
- measurably improving the quality and value of care
- improving patient experience and outcomes
- continuously learning and innovating
- improving population health
“AMGA is excited to present this year’s Acclaim Award to UW Medicine for the notable strides they’ve taken to measurably improve care quality and outcomes, and reduce costs,” said John Kennedy, its chief medical officer. “Through this award, we hope to highlight the tactics UW Medicine used and the outcomes they achieved to help inspire other providers seeking to improve their own performance.”
“We are honored to receive this prestigious award,” said Dr. Paul Ramsey, CEO of UW Medicine. “It is a tribute to the innovation and dedication of our care teams, who are steadfastly working to improve the quality and value of care and to make UW Medicine a national leader for care transformation.”
UW Medicine is an academic health system affiliated with the University of Washington in Seattle.
With a workforce of more than 27,000, including 4,670 clinicians at 4 hospitals, UW Medicine is one of the Pacific Northwest’s largest health systems.
Among the strategies that UW Medicine developed:
- implementing a system-wide, high-risk care management program
- empaneling nearly 400,000 primary-care patients to more than 450 primary-care providers (PCP) at 38 clinics
- creating programs for intensive management of patient chronic conditions, in coordination with PCPs
- Linking patient-reported outcomes data into the clinical workflow
UW Medicine will present their initiatives March 27-30 at the AMGA 2019 annual conference in Maryland.
For details about UW Medicine, please visit http://uwmedicine.org/about.