About Us

Quality Care: Awards and Reports

We're proud of our exceptional record. For a full report on quality scores, see Quality and Safety at UC San Diego Health System or the links below.

Awards and AchievementsTop 50 Cardiovascular Hospitals

  • We were named one of the nation's 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals for 2013 by Truven Health Analytics. The study examined the performance of more than 1,000 hospitals by analysing oucomes for patients with heart failre and heart attacks, adn for those who received coronary bypasss surgery and percutaneous coronary inventions such as angioplasties. The top 50 hospitals achieved significantly highler levels of care efficiency than their peers.
  • In January 2013, Becker's Hospital Review put us on its list of 100 Hospitals with Great Heart Programs. Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center was specifically recognized as being San Diego's first dedicated heart center and for advanced surgical capabilities. Learn more.
  • Over the last year,we significantly decreased "door-to-balloon" time, or the time it took for a lifesaving procedure during the most severe types of heart attacks. Our time was under 60 minutes, well below the national benchmarks. Read more.
  • We were one of only 167 hospital nationwide to receive America College of Cardiology Foundation's NCR ACTION Registry-GWTG (Get With the Guidelines) Gold Performance Achievement Award for 2011. The quality improvement program recognizes our success in implementing a higher standard of care for heart attack patients and signifies that our team has reached an aggressive goal of treating these patients. Read more.
  • In February 2011, we performed a rare, life-saving cardiac surgery called heterotopic heart transplantation, where the patient’s own heart remains in place while a donor heart is implanted, leaving the patient with two beating hearts. Read more.
  • In January 2011, we implanted the first total artificial heart in California. Read more.
  • The Stroke Center at UC San Diego Health System earned the Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval in 2004 and became the first primary stroke center in San Diego County. Read more stroke care facts and figures.

Leapfrog Hospital Survey

The Leapfrog Group is a coalition of public and private purchasers of employee health coverage founded in 2000 to work for improvements in health care safety, quality and affordability. The Leapfrog Group surveys over 1,300 hospitals and assesses performance.

Cardiovascular-specific performance reports for UC San Diego Health System:

View UC San Diego's overall ratings

Hospital Compare

Hospital Compare is a website created through collaboration of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA).

Cardiovascular-specific reports for UC San Diego Health System:

View all UC San Diego reports in Hospital Compare