Hospitals With Substantial Improvement in Quality and Accountability Study -- CHICAGO, Oct. 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- CHICAGO, Oct. 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- UHC named the 2013 recipients of the Rising Star Award during the UHC Annual Conference 2013 in Atlanta, Ga. The award recognizes significant improvements in ranking in UHC's annual Quality and Accountability Study, which identifies exemplary performance in patient safety, mortality, clinical effectiveness, and equity of care. The UHC Rising Star winners are: UK HealthCare Thomas Jefferson University Hospital Stanford Hospital & Clinics "UHC congratulates these hospitals for successfully focusing on health care quality and accountability improvement," said Irene M. Thompson, UHC's president and chief executive officer. The achievements of the Rising Stars are especially notable because other academic medical centers are also working in earnest to improve patient safety and quality, and thus it has become quite difficult to stand out among more than 100 peer organizations. The UHC Quality and Accountability Study was designed to help academic medical centers identify structures and practices that are associated with high performance in quality and safety. About UHC UHC is an alliance of the nation's leading nonprofit academic medical centers, which are focused on delivering world-class patient care.