Wake Forest Baptist Improves Quality Rating Among Nation’s Academic Medical Centers

November 10, 2014

Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center is ranked among the nation’s best in quality for academic medical centers, according to the 2014 University Healthcare Consortium (UHC) Quality and Accountability Performance Scorecard.

The Medical Center now ranks No. 15 out of 120 participating academic medical centers (AMC) in the nation in overall quality, and is tied for No. 4 in mortality.

"This is an outstanding improvement and a huge accomplishment,” said Wake Forest Baptist Health president and COO, Karen Barbara “Bobbi” Carbone, M.D “We are so proud of our all of our employees. We could not have achieved this without the daily efforts of each one of them.”

The goal of the Quality and Accountability Performance Scorecard is to determine each AMC’s clinical and organizational performance across several aspects of patient care and to provide results for comparison across the participating academic medical centers.

The Scorecard measures mortality, effectiveness, safety, equity, patient centeredness and efficiency.

Wake Forest Baptist’s scorecard improvement is largely due to its diligent, ongoing success in both mortality and safety. In 2013, a decrease in mortality resulted in the Medical Center being ranked among the top 10 performing UHC academic medical centers for this quality rating.

Russell M. Howerton, M.D., chief medical officer and vice president of clinical operations, said, “I have always known Wake Forest Baptist has what it takes to be among the top hospitals in the nation. We have outstanding physicians and a stellar staff.”

Cathleen A. Wheatley, RN,, chief nurse executive and vice president of clinical operations, applauded the nurses for their role in this achievement. “Our nursing staff is critical to making these improvements happen. We cannot thank them enough for their hard work.”

Media Relations

Paula Faria: pfaria@wakehealth.edu, 336-716-1279

Mac Ingraham: mingraha@wakehealth.edu, 336-716-3487