At UCSF Health, our goal is to provide safe care of the highest quality to all our patients. To help ourselves meet this goal, we track objective measures of our performance, comparing them with those of other top medical centers nationwide as well as our own high standards. No matter how well we measure up, we continually seek ways to improve.

We define high-quality care as:

  • Effective. Care is based on scientific evidence and provided to all who could benefit.
  • Safe. Avoids harm to patients.
  • Timely. Limits waiting and delays for both those who receive and those who give care.
  • Equitable. Care doesn't vary in quality due to the patient's personal characteristics, such as gender and ethnicity.