Magazine names UMC one of 10 best hospitals in U.S.

Becker's Hospital Review magazine has named  University Medical Center in Tucson, Ariz., one of the 10 best hospitals in America for 2009. UMC joins a prestigious list of 10 elite hospitals the magazine singled out for consistently high rankings as cited by industry associations, national health-care consultants Thomson Reuters, HealthGrades and Leapfrog, their communities and U.S. News & World Report. “University Medical Center pushes the quality envelope in many directions,” according to the magazine, citing awards the hospital won this year from Thomson Reuters, the University HealthSystems Consortium and the National Research Corporation. The other nine hospitals on Becker’s Top 10 Hospitals list were Duke University Hospital in Durham, N.C., Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins Hospital, Lehigh Valley Hospital in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, NYU Langone Medical Center in New York, Los Angeles’ Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers in Ann Arbor, and Nashville’s Vanderbilt University Medical Center. UMC is the primary teaching hospital of the University of Arizona Colleges of Medicine, Pharmacy and Nursing . It operates the only Level 1 Trauma Center in Southern Arizona and also specializes in heart and cancer care, pediatrics and organ transplantation.  In spring 2010 the hospital will open Diamond Children’s Medical Center, the only children’s medical center in Arizona associated with an academic medical center.  UMC’s longtime President and Chief Executive Officer Greg Pivirotto recently announced he plans to retire in January 2010. Kevin Burns, the hospital’s chief financial officer for the past seven years, will become president and CEO on Pivirotto’s retirement. “UMC has won many awards over the years, but it was a shock to see UMC on the same list with the likes of Duke and Johns Hopkins. We are very honored,” Pivirotto said.   The magazine’s top 10 list and analysis is available at: http://www.hospitalreviewmagazine.com/news-and-analysis/current-statistics-and-lists/beckers-hospital-review-names-10-best-hospitals-for-2009.html