FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Joe Martin, Communications Director
717-232-6787 or
Certificate Award Recipients for Calendar Year 2003
Harrisburg, PA - June 17, 2004 - Twenty health care facilities in Pennsylvania were awarded Certificates of Excellence by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4) for exceeding data submission requirements for Calendar Year 2003 data. PHC4, an independent state agency with a national reputation for groundbreaking health care reporting, requires Pennsylvania hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers to submit accurate, timely health care data. Two UPMC facilities - Braddock and St. Margaret - earned Certificates of Excellence for inpatient and outpatient CY2003 data submissions. Four UPMC facilities - St. Margaret, Braddock, South Side, and Horizon - received Certificates of Excellence for the third consecutive year.
"PHC4's reputation for reporting high quality, reliable health care data would not be possible without the cooperation of Pennsylvania's hospitals and surgery centers," said Marc P. Volavka, PHC4's Executive Director. "We congratulate these facilities for their commitment to data quality."
In order to earn Certificates of Excellence, facilities had to be in the top 20th percentile of facilities with the lowest initial error rates and meet deadlines for all quarterly data submissions without needing any extensions.
Another 242 facilities earned Certificates of Achievement for meeting data submission requirements and achieving error rates of 15% or less. Of these, 115 facilities received Certificates of Achievement for inpatient and outpatient submissions.
The Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4) is an independent state agency charged with collecting, analyzing and reporting information that can be used to improve the quality and restrain the cost of health care in Pennsylvania. Additional information about PHC4 and its public reports are available on the Council's Web site at http://www.phc4.org or by calling 717-232-6787.
The following twenty facilities are receiving Certificates of Excellence. A list of all facilities receiving Certificates of Excellence or Certificates of Achievement is attached.