On May 3, United Hospital Fund honored 73 extraordinary quality improvement leaders from 69 health care organizations across the metropolitan region at its third annual Tribute to Excellence in Health Care. The honorees were recognized during a virtual event for their personal efforts to improve quality of care, patient safety, and the patient experience.
A special focus was leadership specifically related to responding to COVID-19 and addressing health care disparities. The keynote was delivered remotely by Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH, Dean of the School of Public Health and Professor of Health Services, Policy, and Practice at Brown University.
Dr. Jha commended the honorees for their efforts to improve and implement telemedicine, testing infrastructure, new treatment protocols and processes, infection control, vaccination programs, and the teamwork that was critical to support all these efforts. He noted that there is now a 50 percent lower risk of dying from COVID-19 than there was a year ago and attributed most of that extraordinary drop in mortality to quality and process improvements. “What I am absolutely crystal clear on is that the work you have done on the front lines has been central to saving hundreds of thousands of lives,” he told the honorees.
“This has been an extraordinarily challenging year for health professionals everywhere, and New York’s health care community can be justly proud of how well they have managed and indeed, prevailed, during the pandemic,” said UHF president Anthony Shih, MD. “Part of the credit goes to the quality leaders recognized today and their vital efforts to make our health care system more patient-centered, safe, and effective, efforts that were more important than ever during this crisis. UHF is honored to recognize their achievements.”
Cary A. Kravet, a UHF board member and trustee of Northwell Health, was the event chair. TD Bank was the generous Lead Sponsor of the Tribute, and Emmet Conlon, Head of U.S. Healthcare, and a number of TD executives attended as special guests.
The full video of the event can be viewed here. The list of honorees can be found here.