Memorial Hermann–Texas Medical Center (MH-TMC) and UTHealth Houston were jointly recognized among the nation’s Top Ten Comprehensive Academic Medical Centers at the 2025 Vizient Connection Summit, marking the 20th anniversary of Vizient’s flagship Quality & Accountability Study. This achievement reinforces the power of our shared governance model and collaborative approach to improving safety, outcomes, and patient experience.
“We are very proud of our sustained performance over the last 7 years,” said Dr. Bela Patel, Vice Dean of Quality at UTHealth Houston and Chief Medical Officer at Memorial Hermann–TMC. “I feel that the UT-HIP Quality Collaborative has been very impactful to our improvement efforts. The sharing of best practices from our partners in the UT System has kept us at the leading edge of safety and quality in our Vizient Quality & Accountability rankings.”
During the conference, the MH-TMC/UTHealth Houston Quality Team presented on the Team of Teams framework—an approach inspired by General Stanley McChrystal’s leadership model for high-complexity environments. “The ‘Team of Teams’ concept is ideal for a complex, adaptive environment like our hospital,” said Jean McBride, UTHealth Houston Director of Process Safety & Quality. “We created cross-functional teams for distributed decision-making and empowered leadership. It truly puts the users at the front line in charge of quality and safety improvement.”
Dr. Robert Murphy, Medical Director of Quality at the UT Health Intelligence Platform, highlighted the collaborative model as a key driver behind MH-TMC’s consistent top-tier performance in patient safety. “It’s a great example of data-driven collaboration in action—how the right culture, structure, and analytics can together elevate outcomes,” he shared.
The conference also marked the first year Vizient released pediatric rankings, with UTMB Health named among the Top Performers in Pediatric Care. “It’s exciting to see UTMB represented on this inaugural list,” said Ankita Podichetty, Clinical Informaticist with UT-HIP.
MD Anderson Cancer Center was additionally recognized for excellence in Vizient’s oncology rankings, further reflecting the strength of quality efforts across the UT System.
These achievements underscore a shared commitment to innovation, collaboration, and continuous excellence in patient care.
More information: https://www.vizientinc.com/newsroom/news-releases/2025/vizient-announce…
