Patient Health and Safety

Patient health and safety is an essential and vital component of quality health care. We are one of many stakeholders that supports industry standards to help ensure patient care is safely delivered. We offer physicians and other health care professionals information and tools to help support this important goal.

Member Resources

• myOptumHealth.com
• myuhc.com
• Rally - Health and Wellness Program

Health Literacy Tools

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Institute of Medicine Roundtable on Health Literacy
  
• Just Plain Clear ‒ Glossary of Health Care and Health Insurance Terms 

Health Equity Resources

• Cultural Competency
• Social Determinants of Health 

Patient Safety Resources

• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Guide to Patient and Family Engagement in Hospital Quality and Safety
• Health Care for Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD Toolkit)
  
• Hospital Safety Score
• National Quality Forum

Medical Record Tools & Templates

• Adult High Risk Screening Tools and Templates for Depression, Substance Abuse & Family Violence (American College of Physicians)
• Adult Immunization Record Forms (Centers for Disease Control)
• Advance Directives - State-Specific Forms (American Hospital Association)
• Childhood & Adolescent Immunization Record Forms (Centers for Disease Control)
• Chronic Disease Flow Sheets & Office Templates for Diabetes, Hypertension & Cardiac Conditions (American College of Physicians)
• Health Maintenance & Preventive Care Chart Form, Tools & Templates for Adults (American College of Physicians)
• Parental Refusal to Vaccinate Form (American Academy of Pediatrics)

Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS®) 

What is HEDIS?

The Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) provides purchasers and consumers with the information they need to reliably compare the performance of managed health care plans. HEDIS performance measures are related to many significant public health issues including:

•  Cancer
•  Heart disease
•  Smoking
•  Asthma
•  Diabetes

HEDIS also includes a standardized survey of consumer experiences that evaluates plan performance in areas such as:

•  Customer service
•  Access to care
•  Claims possessing

HEDIS is sponsored, supported and maintained by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). HEDIS is a registered trademark of the NCQA. NCQA HEDIS Compliance Audit is a trademark of the NCQA.

The Leapfrog Group

The Leapfrog Group is a nonprofit organization focused on compliance with safe practices in health care to reduce preventable medical mistakes and improve patient safety

Launched in 2000, The Leapfrog Group recommends hospital quality and safety practices, which are endorsed by the National Quality Forum including:

• Use of computer physician order entry (CPOE)
• Evidence-based hospital referral
• Staffing intensive care units with trained specialists (ICU physician staffing)
• Leapfrog Safe Practices Score endorsed by National Quality Forum

To help consumers find the best possible and safest health care for themselves and their families, we include Leapfrog reporting (where available) in our consumer-directed information and care-facilitation programs. The Leapfrog Hospital Comparison Tool is available at leapfroggroup.org/cp.

The Leapfrog Group makes hospital letter grades available to the public. The letter grades (A, B, C, D and F) are derived from expert analysis of publicly available data using evidence-based, national measures of hospital safety. Hospitals receive letter grades based on their overall performance in keeping patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors. To find out more information about Hospital Safety Grade visit hospitalsafetygrade.org.

For more information on The Leapfrog Group visit leapfroggroup.org .

To learn more about UnitedHealthcare's involvement with The Leapfrog Group, please contact Keri Fogg, RN, BS, MSHI, CCM at keri_m_fogg@uhc.com.