Quality: A Focus and a Priority

Quality has always been a focus and a priority at UnitedHealth Group. Our goal is to eliminate harm and achieve optimal clinical quality for our patients and members.​

Although there has been real progress made in patient safety over the past two decades, about 40 percent of patients experience harm in ambulatory and primary care settings globally, with an estimated 80 percent of these harms being preventable. Harm can cause long-term impact to physical health, emotional health, financial well-being or family relationships.

Patient Safety Week

Clinical Quality and Patient Safety

Goals

  • Create a pervasive clinical quality and safety culture across the businesses with clear roles, responsibilities and expectations;
  • Develop a framework for enterprise-wide clinical quality assurance.
  • Facilitate consistency and alignment of clinical, quality and patient safety standards, accreditation and credentialing processes, program compliance, and risk management.

Areas of Focus

  • Enterprise governance
  • Psychological safety
  • Clinical standards
  • Executive reporting
  • Continuous quality improvement

4 out of 10 Patients

  • Harmed in primary and outpatient care​​​​​​​ 
  • 80% of this harm is preventable1

1 out of 4 Patients

  •  Harmed in hospital care
  • 50% of this harm is preventable2
UHG Quality and Patient Safety Key Definitions

UHG Quality Belief: Quality means we strive for excellence in everything we do.

UHG Clinical Quality Definition: Doing the right thing, for the right patient/member, at the right time, in the right way to achieve the best results possible. In order to achieve this, health care must be safe, effective, timely, efficient, equitable and people centered.

UHG Patient Safety Definition: Patient safety is the prevention of harm to patients and members.  Harm includes physical, psychological, emotional, moral, economic and societal harm.

UHG High Reliability Definition: The sustained pursuit of excellent performance under complex and dynamic conditions. Organizations operating in high volume, complex and risky environments, without serious accidents and failures, are known as high reliability organizations (HROs). UHG has embarked on a journey to become a highly reliable organization.