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America's Best HospitalsMagnet Hospital Designation

Recognitions and Distinctions

America's Best Hospitals UMC Ranked as One of America’s Best Hospitals

University Medical Center is again ranked among the nation’s premier hospitals in U.S.News & World Report’s annual guide to “America’s Best Hospitals.” Complete rankings appear at http://health.usnews.com/besthospitals.

This year UMC is ranked among the top 50 hospitals in the United States in kidney disorders. The ranking matrix takes into account reputation, mortality, patient safety and other issues. Of the 4,861 hospitals in the survey, 174 scored high enough to be ranked in one of the 16 specialties measured. 

“University Medical Center receives this recognition because of the people who strive every day to make a difference — the physicians, scientists, the nurses, the entire staff. UMC is honored by their dedication and their expertise," said Greg Pivirotto, UMC president and CEO.

Methodology

According to U.S. News, the rankings in 12 of the 16 specialties weigh three elements equally: reputation, death rate, and a set of care-related factors such as nursing and patient services. In these 12 specialties, hospitals have to pass through several gates to be ranked and considered a Best Hospital:
  1. The first gate determines whether a hospital is eligible to be ranked at all by requiring that any of three conditions be met — to be a teaching hospital, to be affiliated with a teaching hospital, or to have at least six important medical technologies from a defined list of 13.


  2. The second gate determines whether a hospital is eligible to be ranked in a particular specialty. To be eligible, the hospital had to either have at least a specified volume in certain procedures and conditions over three years, or to have been nominated in a yearly specialist survey.


  3. The third gate is whether a hospital does well enough to be ranked, based on its reputation, death rate, and factors like nurse staffing and technology.
About UMC

UMC opened in 1971 and is the primary teaching hospital of The University of Arizona Colleges of Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy. UMC also is affiliated with Centers of Excellence at the Arizona Health Sciences Center, including the Arizona Respiratory Center, the Arizona Center on Aging, the Arizona Arthritis Center, the UA Sarver Heart Center, the Steele Children’s Research Center and the Arizona Cancer Center, among others. UMC operates the only Level 1 trauma center in Southern Arizona and is the future home of the Diamond Children’s Medical Center, now under construction and scheduled to open in 2010.

Other Distinctions

UMC has the highest survival rate in Arizona for coronary bypass surgery, according to Health Services Advisory Group, Arizona division of Health Care Finance Administration (based on 1994-1997 data).

University Medical Center has compiled an impressive number of medical firsts over the years:

  • Design of the world’s first artificial wrist. Recognized by the American Hospital Association as one of the nation’s most important hospital advances. 1976
  • Human tumor cell cloning, a revolutionary technique that allows researchers to test the effectiveness of different anti-cancer treatments against tumor cells before patients receive the drug. 1976
  • Pioneering use of radiology without film. 1977
  • Arizona’s first heart transplant. 1979
  • Artificial heart pioneered as world’s first successful “bridge-to-transplant.” 1985
  • Surgery professors help discover earliest known case of AIDS in the United States. 1987
  • Melano-Tan, an injectable compound that tans skin without sun. Eventual use will focus on skin cancer prevention. 1991
  • Measles diagnosis is achieved faster with a new technique developed by pediatric researchers. 1991
  • Stereotactic radiosurgery, a procedure employed to destroy brain tumors, is successfully used for the first time to destroy a tumor surrounding the spine. 1993  

Centers of Excellence

University Medical Center, located on the campus of the Arizona Health Sciences Center (AHSC), is affiliated with the following Centers of Excellence, programs in the UA College of Medicine that emphasize interdisciplinary research in specialized areas of medicine. Centers of Excellence are approved by the Arizona Board of Regents.

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