Winners of the 2013 Hospital Website Transparency Awards Program Announced

URAC and The Leapfrog Group have announced the winners of the 2013 Hospital Website Transparency Awards Program. The two organizations have partnered for a second year to identify outstanding hospital websites that promote transparency of safety and quality measures in a manner that is useful and user-friendly for consumers.  The winners were announced as part of The Leapfrog Group Annual Meeting taking place at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington, VA. All hospitals that completed a 2013 Leapfrog Hospital Survey and publicly report quality and/or safety metrics were eligible.

Eleven hospitals received the 2013 Hospital Website Transparency Award, and three hospitals received the Award with Distinction for going above and beyond in their work to promote hospital website transparency:

  • Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
  • Inova (Alexandria, Fair Oaks, Fairfax, Loudoun, Mount Vernon)
  • Harlem Hospital Center
  • Mercy Regional Medical Center
  • Nationwide Children’s Hospital
  • St. Mary Corwin Medical Center
  • Texas Children’s Hospital
  • WakeMed Health & Hospitals
  • Baptist Health South Florida (with Distinction)
  • JFK Medical Center (with Distinction)
  • Kaiser Permanente (with Distinction)

“The Hospital Website Transparency Awards are a unique way for us to honor and showcase these hospitals that show initiative in protecting consumers through transparency and quality reporting,” said Kylanne Green, URAC president and CEO. “We are celebrating these hospitals who exhibit innovations and best practices, and it is encouraging to see so many hospitals that are committed to informing, protecting, and serving the community.”

“For the past two years, the Hospital Website Transparency Awards have recognized hospitals that have adapted and succeeded in the new era of health care consumerism,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “They have designed websites that are informative, engaging, and user-friendly for the communities they serve. We applaud their commitment to innovation and healthcare transparency.”

The Hospital Website Transparency Awards criteria was developed in accordance with the National Quality Forum’s guidelines for consumer-focused, Internet-based public reporting of health performance data as well as the Model Public Report Elements prepared for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Hospitals that have received the award will be identifiable by the award seal on the hospital website.  More information about the awards program can be found at https://www.urac.org/hospitalwebsiteawards/.