Cedars-Sinai Medical Group Ranked One Of California's Best

Top Performance Award recognizes quality performance of top medical groups statewide.

Los Angeles - Oct. 16, 2008 – For the fourth consecutive year, Cedars-Sinai Medical Group was rated one of California’s top performing physicians’ organizations by the Integrated Healthcare Association (IHA).

The IHA gives its Top Performance Awards to medical groups that are leaders in the use of evidence-based healthcare processes and health information technology. The IHA awarded groups scoring in the top 20 percent in its statewide analysis, based on a number of performance measures, including clinical quality, patient satisfaction, preventative care and enhanced use of information technology. Cedars-Sinai Medical Group is one of only four different medical groups in Los Angeles to be honored, and one out of a dozen different groups in Southern California.

“Our continued recognition in the Top Performance Awards is the result of a culture of continuous self-improvement and self-assessment,” said Thomas D. Gordon, senior vice president of Cedars-Sinai Health System and CEO of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Delivery Network. “We are committed to providing the highest quality care to our patients, and to improving the health of our community.”

More than 230 California medical groups participated in the IHA’s Pay for Performance program, the largest physician incentive program in the United States. The program, now in its fifth year, enables physician groups to receive financial rewards from participating health plans based on their performance on quality measures that gauge clinical quality, which include cancer screenings, immunizations and diabetes care. It also considers factors that determine patient satisfaction, such as timely access to care and doctor-patient communication.

The Cedars-Sinai Medical Group, founded in 1985, focuses on providing primary care, disease prevention and specialty care. The group includes 96 multi-specialty and primary care physicians.

The IHA is a nonprofit statewide collaborative leadership group composed of California health plans, physician groups and healthcare systems, as well as academic, consumer, purchaser, pharmaceutical and technology representatives. The association promotes quality improvement, accountability and affordability for the benefit of California consumers through special projects, policy innovation and education.