Celebrating accomplishments in 2021

For many years, Vizient has annually recognized its members for clinical performance, supply chain excellence, supplier diversity and environmentally preferred sourcing. Due to the pandemic, our approach in 2021 is a little different.

While we continued our ranking process for clinical and supply chain performance in 2020, we paused all recognitions to celebrate the work of members managing a myriad of supply challenges while continuing to deliver patient care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

For 2021, Vizient will resume our full-year, annual member rankings and will support those who are recognized as top performers who want to promote their ranking publicly. Instead of Vizient publicly promoting the rankings, we will have a special celebration at our annual meeting in November to highlight the heroic efforts our members during this extraordinary time.

As in years past, the Vizient annual scorecards with rankings will span from July 1 of the previous year through June 30 of the current year, and measure clinical quality and supply chain performance reported across relevant domains with members divided into four cohorts. This year will include data surrounding COVID patient populations and COVID related operational activities. Members will receive their scorecard with rankings in the domains in early October 2021. 

Learn more about the four cohorts

Clinical domains for Quality and Accountability Rankings

The Bernard A. Birnbaum, MD, Quality Leadership assessment annually highlights academic medical centers, large, specialized complex care medical centers, complex medical centers and community hospital members that demonstrate superior performance, as measured by the Vizient Quality and Accountability Study, conducted annually since 2005. It was posthumously renamed in 2015 to honor Bernard “Bernie” Birnbaum, MD, who served as senior vice president, vice dean and chief of hospital operations for NYU Langone Medical Center and as a member of the former University HealthSystem Consortium's board of directors.

View the past winners

The Birnbaum Quality Leadership Performance Ranking measures the quality of patient care in six domains: mortality, efficiency, effectiveness, patient centeredness, safety, and equity. The ranking’s composite scoring system uses patient-level performance data from a variety of sources including the Vizient Clinical Data Base, core measures data, the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN).
The Ambulatory Care Quality and Accountability Ranking measures the quality of outpatient care in five domains: access to care, continuum of care, quality, efficiency, and equity. The composite scoring system uses practice and patient-level data from the Vizient-AAMC Clinical Practice Solutions Center and the Vizient Access Database the Clinical Data Base.

Supply chain domains for Operational Excellence, Supplier Diversity and Environmentally Preferred Purchasing Rankings

The rankings for Supply Chain Operational Excellence, Supplier Diversity Excellence and Environmentally Preferred Sourcing Excellence annually highlight academic medical centers, large, specialized complex care medical centers, complex medical centers and community hospital members that demonstrate superiority in these categories.

View the past winners

The Supply Chain Operational Excellence scorecard assesses members in each cohort for achieving strong operational controls and efficiency in their supply chain operations. Ranking is based on a review of supply chain purchasing and performance data for all Vizient member hospitals.
Supplier Diversity Excellence ranks members in each cohort on how they champion inclusion in their supply chain and accelerate economic growth in their local community through the engagement, empowerment and utilization of minority-, women-, veteran-, LGBT- and disability-owned business enterprises. Ranking is based on contract purchases with certified minority, women and veteran-owned businesses as a percentage of a member’s Vizient spend.
Environmentally Preferred Sourcing Excellence ranks members in each cohort on contributions to human and environmental health through responsible purchasing decisions. Ranking is based on their purchase of products containing at least one environmentally preferred attribute as a percentage of their Vizient spend.