Quality and Safety

Dr. Daniels with child looking at computer

At Mayo Clinic Children's Center, we focus on the highest quality of care and safety for our children. We set and achieve top standards, regularly measure quality outcomes, and have process improvement plans to deal with any issues that come up.

Top rankings regionally and nationally

  • Top regional ranking. Mayo Clinic Children's Center in Rochester is ranked the No. 1 hospital in Minnesota and the five-state region of Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, according to U.S. News & World Report's 2024-2025 "Best Children's Hospitals" rankings.
  • National excellence. Nationally, U.S. News & World Report ranks Mayo Clinic Children's Center as a top-performing children's hospital in 10 of the 11 pediatric specialties evaluated. This means that our Children's Center provides excellent care for the sickest and most complex patients.

Recognition for top-quality care in trauma, surgery and nursing

  • Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Center. The American College of Surgeons verifies that Mayo Clinic Children's Center has a Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Center. This means that we provide the highest level of surgical care and other specialty services to children with serious injuries, which significantly increases their chances of survival. Outstanding leadership, teamwork, education and quality assessment are key parts of the center.
  • Level 1 Children's Surgery Center. Mayo Clinic Children's Center is a Level 1 Children's Surgery Center, the highest verification awarded by the American College of Surgeons (ACS). This distinction recognizes the surgical excellence of our multispecialty teams — including surgeons, anesthesiologists, physicians, nurses and more — who meet or exceed ACS criteria for quality of care for newborns, babies, children and teenage surgical patients.
  • ANCC Magnet Recognition. The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) awards Magnet recognition for excellence in nursing. Magnet status is considered the gold standard that demonstrates a commitment to quality, safety and improvement, teamwork, evidence-based practice and research, and formal nursing education. The ANCC Magnet Recognition Program awards this status to healthcare organizations that show transformational leadership, structural empowerment, exemplary professional practice, and innovations and improvements in nursing practice.

Working with quality improvement groups

As an active member of hospital groups that focus on quality care, Mayo Clinic Children's Center strives to improve the healthcare and health outcomes of children.

  • Children's Hospital Association (CHA). CHA represents more than 220 children's hospitals across the United States. This association and its members work together to improve education, practices, policies, quality and safety. Through advocacy efforts, more children get high-quality, cost-effective healthcare.
  • Child Health Patient Safety Organization (PSO). Child Health PSO helps participants improve the quality and safety of healthcare by sharing information and experiences. This reduces and prevents harm to children's health. Patient Safety Action Alerts are shared publicly right away to better protect children's health and create ways to prevent harm.
  • Children's Hospitals' Solutions for Patient Safety (SPS). SPS is a network of more than 140 children's hospitals working together to eliminate serious harm in hospitals through best practices. Since 2012, this national effort has saved 25,120 children from serious harm and led to an estimated savings of $510.4 million, with an upward trend in harm prevention every month.

Tracking outcomes to prevent infections

Mayo Clinic Children's Center has strict guidelines on how to prevent infections and take detailed steps to keep everyone safe. We have ways to track outcomes of safety practices, such as thorough hand-washing, preventing bloodstream infections associated with central lines and preventing surgical site infections.

  • Hand hygiene data
    Preventing the spread of infection is a critical aspect of patient safety. The single most important and effective safety measure at Mayo Clinic Children's Center is to make sure everyone's hands are clean before and after every patient encounter. Hand hygiene compliance shows the percent of time that healthcare workers wash their hands.

  • CLABSI data
    Sometimes a central line is inserted so that children can get IV medications and have their bloodwork checked without having frequent pokes by a needle. While central lines deliver important medications, nutrients and fluids to patients to help them recover from their illness, they do have some risks, including central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI).

    CLABSI is an infection that happens within 48 hours of placing the central line and does not relate to infections from other sources. By using proper infection-control methods, most cases can be prevented.

  • Surgical site infections
    A surgical site infection (SSI) is one that happens after surgery in the part of the body where the surgery was done. Surgical site infections can sometimes be less serious infections that involve only the outer layers of the skin. Other more serious surgical site infections can involve tissues under the skin, organs or material that's been implanted.

    For children who have had certain operations, including ventricular shunts, spinal fusions or heart surgeries, we track how many SSIs happen after surgery. Most children who have surgery at Mayo Clinic Children's Center do well. We have many processes in place to reduce the risk of infection.

Other quality processes

Mayo Clinic Children's Center Quality Executive Committee and Quality/Practice Committee meet regularly to discuss quality programs and make recommendations for improvement. The Children's Center continually focuses on measuring and improving quality and safety to provide the best experience for children and their families.

Patient experience

As part of the plan to improve the care and experience of our patients, we share patient experience results with each healthcare provider on an individual level as well as a divisional level. The chart below shows consistently high ratings from the years 2020 through 2023.