University of Iowa Children's Hospital has been ranked among the best children's hospitals in the United States by Parents magazine. Michael Artman, MD, professor and head of the Department of Pediatrics at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, as well as physician-in-chief of University of Iowa Children's Hospital, talks about the ranking:
This is obviously quite an honor. It's not like you were just going up against somebody who maybe is across town or regionally. We're talking nationwide here. How were children's hospitals across the country selected to take part in this Parents magazine survey?
There is a national organization of children's hospitals that Parents magazine contacted for a list of all the members. Each organization that is a member of this organization, and that's somewhat over 200 children's hospitals, were invited to participate in this survey.
Exactly who was your competition? How many children's hospitals were surveyed?
More than 100 children's hospitals responded to the survey. It's a very large project. We received the 250-question questionnaire that was very extensive and thorough.
When you talk about a survey as extensive as this, how labor intensive was it?
The time frame was really very tight and we had a number of people working on this. We've got a great team that gathered all the information and data. Parents wanted information about:
- Staffing
- Educational programs
- Research programs
- Outcomes for specific procedures
- Types of community involvement
We had a lot of people working on this for a number of weeks.
What were some of the criteria, maybe the most important ones, the survey looked at with regard to pediatric care?
They looked very specifically at high tech advanced care and the outcomes from that. To distill all that down really comes down to quality of care, patient safety, and the effectiveness of your outcomes.
Where did UI Children's Hospital rank among the 100 hospitals surveyed?
We were delighted and humbled, actually, to land at number 20 in the country, which puts us up there in the top tier of all children's hospitals across the U.S. and puts us in the same league with many of the elite premier children's hospitals in the major metropolitan areas. For us here in Iowa City to be competitive at that level is really quite an accomplishment.
How does a ranking like this reflect back to the staff and services offered at UI Children's Hospital?
I think it just confirms what I've known for the last few years since I've been here. We've got great people. We've got terrific facilities. UI Children's Hospital—we're the safety net for this region. We provide the services you just can't get elsewhere. And children in our area don't have to travel to Chicago or St. Louis or Minneapolis to get the kind of care and the quality outcomes that we can provide right here in their back yard.
Where do you go from here?
We're not complacent. We're not going to rest on these laurels. We know that there is always room for improvement. I think we've got opportunities to continue to:
- Focus and improve our communication with our referring providers
- Establish a more robust relationship in the communities so that kids who need that high tech care can come here and get it
- Partner with providers back home and get those kids back home where they're much more comfortable and
- Work together as a larger health system to provide high quality care for every child in our region
When will Parents magazine be available in stores?
It is the February issue and it's my understanding it will come out in mid January. I think the target is January 13.
How is the pipeline working? Are you finding that the word is getting out?
You know, consumers are much more savvy these days. People look on the Internet and read these rankings. They know this is an important mark of distinction and it reflects favorably on the quality of the team here at UI Children's Hospital.
Congratulations to you.
Thank you very much. We very much appreciate that. |
