Two Top-100 Lists This Year Demonstrate Baldrige Impact in U.S. Health Care

Two prestigious "top 100" lists highlight the impact of the Baldrige framework for performance excellence in U.S. health care today. Most recently, Modern Healthcare's "100 Most Influential People in Healthcare" list, released August 26, honors three leaders of Baldrige Award-winning health care organizations and a Baldrige Executive Fellow. Those voted to the 2013 list include Susan DeVore, president and CEO of Premier Inc., which won the Baldrige Award in 2006; Nancy Schlichting, CEO of Henry Ford Health System, which won the Baldrige Award in 2011; James Skogsbergh, president and CEO of Advocate Health Care, the parent organization of 2010 Baldrige Award-winner Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital; and Deborah Bowen, a Baldrige Executive Fellow who is president and CEO of the American College of Healthcare Executives. DeVore has made Modern Healthcare's annual list three times, Schlichting has made the annual list six times, and Skogsbergh has made the list twice.

What's more, Truven Health Analytics' 100 Top Hospitals, 20th edition, released earlier this year, honors 14 hospitals that have received awards for practices and results aligned with the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. Hospitals that have won the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award—as well as health care organizations that have won awards from Baldrige-based state and sector programs (Alliance for Performance Excellence programs)—made the 2013 list of the nation's 100 best hospitals based on measures that evaluate performance excellence in clinical care, patient perception of care, operational efficiency, and financial stability.

Using publicly available data, Truven Health says it learned that the best hospitals and health systems:

• Follow Baldrige practices closely
• Demonstrate excellence across the organization, delivering top-notch patient outcomes, keeping costs down and finances stable so that they can invest more back into patient care, following recommended processes and providing value to the community as a high-quality employer and trusted care partner
• Exhibit a culture of excellence and performance improvement that pervades every aspect of their organizations—from housekeeping to patient care to administration
• Have leaders with common approaches to management and organizational goal development

In the category of teaching hospitals, the 2008 Baldrige Award-winning Poudre Valley Hospital  (PDF) (Fort Collins, CO) made the list, and in the category of large community hospitals, Advocate Good Samaritan  (PDF) (Downers Grove, IL), a 2010 Baldrige Award recipient, made the list. Advocate Good Samaritan was also recognized in the most elite list (the Everest Award): 17 U.S. hospitals that have demonstrated the best current performance and the fastest improvement over the last three to five years.

Other winners of Baldrige-based state and sector program awards that made the top-100 list follow:

• Advocate Lutheran General Hospital (Park Ridge, IL), 2012 Illinois Performance Excellence winner
• Banner Boswell Medical Center (Sun City, AZ)—parent Banner Health, 2012 Showcase in Excellence Award (AZ) winner
• Immanuel Medical Center (Omaha, NE)—Immanuel Fontenelle Home, its long-term care and skilled nursing facility, 2011 American Health Care Association (AHCA)/National Center for Assisted Living (NCAL) Bronze Commitment to Quality Award winner
• INOVA Fair Oaks Hospital (Fairfax, VA), 2006 U.S. Senate Productivity and Quality Award (VA) winner
• Kettering Medical Center (Kettering, OH)—parent Kettering Health Network, 2010 Governor's Award for Excellence (OH) winner
• Maury Regional Medical Center (Columbia, TN), 2009 Excellence Award (TN) winner
• McKee Medical Center (Loveland, CO), 2006 Timberline Award Recipient (CO)
• Riverside Methodist Hospital (Columbus, OH), 2005 Achievement of Excellence (Ohio) winner
• Sauk Prairie Memorial Hospital and Clinics (Prairie du Sac, WI), 2012 Wisconsin Forward Award winner
• St. David's Medical Center and St. David's North Austin Medical Center (Austin, TX)—parent St David's Healthcare System, 2008 Texas Award for Performance Excellence winner
• St. Luke's Hospital (Cedar Rapids, IA), 2010 Iowa Recognition for Performance Excellence winner
• Sutter Davis Hospital (Davis, CA), 2012 Governor's Award for Performance Excellence (CA)

The close relationship between top-performing hospitals and the Baldrige Criteria was a significant finding in a 2012 Truven survey of hospital chief executive officers. That affirmation of the Baldrige impact on health care re-emphasized the findings of a 2011 study, also by Truven Health Analytics (then known as the health care business of Thomson Reuters), that hospitals that had won the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award or been considered for a Baldrige Award site visit outperform other hospitals in nearly every metric used to determine the 100 Top Hospitals.