A hospital in Illinois known as "Good Sam," and a healthcare consulting group in Florida, are among the seven 2010 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award winners. Information technology is at the core of the operations for both winners.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke announced the awards – billed as the nation's highest presidential honor for performance excellence through innovation, improvement and visionary leadership – on Tuesday.
Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital, in Downers Grove, Ill., a suburb of Chicago, is an acute-care hospital that has evolved in the past 30 years from a 333-bed community hospital to a nationally recognized leader in healthcare, known for its services in cardiology, gastroenterology, stroke care, women's health, and behavioral health. It features a Level I trauma center and a certified level III neonatal intensive care unit. "Good Sam" is part of Advocate Health Care, a top 10 health system in the nation.
Studer Group is a private, for-profit healthcare consulting firm that provides coaching, teaching, and evidenced-based tools and tactics to healthcare organizations throughout the United States. It is led by founder and CEO Quint Studer.
"This year's recipients of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award embody the ingenuity and creativity that characterizes the American spirit and drives America forward," Locke said. "Innovation is at the heart of U.S. job creation, competitiveness and global strength, and the accomplishments of these outstanding leaders are an inspiration to us all."
"This award is unique in that it honors the collective effort of an entire organization that has systematically strived to achieve excellence in all aspects of its work. Today's honorees demonstrate how teamwork and a shared vision can lead not only to organizational success but also to nationwide advancements in innovation and economic competitiveness."
A few highlights from "Good Sam's" performance:
- Good Samaritan Hospital demonstrates high levels of performance in many process measures for clinical outcomes. For example, risk-adjusted mortality (overall mortality divided by expected mortality where 1 is the standard) decreased from 0.55 in 2007 to 0.42 in 2010, exceeding the six-county top-decile level as measured by Thomson Reuters.
- Good Samaritan Hospital uses a 12-step process to determine key factors that affect workforce engagement and satisfaction, and, then, to assess Good Samaritan Hospital's effectiveness in addressing those factors. The hospital uses the results, which are segmented by job classifications and work units, to determine organizational and department tactics for improvement.
- Overall patient satisfaction exceeds top-decile ratings from Press Ganey, the largest national surveyor of patient satisfaction, for all patient segments: inpatient, outpatient, and emergency.
- Good Samaritan Hospital uses a 12-step process to determine key factors that affect workforce engagement and satisfaction, and, then, to assess Good Samaritan Hospital's effectiveness in addressing those factors.
- With a focus on "funding the future," Good Samaritan Hospital has received an AA bond rating and contributed to Advocate Health Care's systemwide AA rating. Good Samaritan Hospital's net operating margin increased from 5.98 percent in 2007 to 7.39 percent in 2009, exceeding that of AA-rated hospitals and representing a top-decile (in the upper 10 percent) performance in the industry.
- Good Samaritan Hospital's total insurance expense for malpractice declined 51 percent from 2006 to 2009, falling from approximately $12 million to approximately $5 million. In addition, Good Samaritan Hospital received a $2 million refund from its primary payor due to a reduction in the risk-adjusted rate related to malpractice.
Studer Group highlights are on the next page.
Highlights of Studer Group's performance:
- Studer Group defines its success based on the results of the organizations it coaches, particularly how patients perceive the quality of care they receive from these partner organizations. On the standardized Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey to determine how patients perceive the quality of care they receive in hospitals, Studer Group partners achieve two to three times more improvement in the same time period than the national average. This results in a 20-percentile point advantage for Studer Group partners over non-partners on the global measures of patient perception of care.
- In pursuit of its vision "to be the intellectual resource for healthcare professionals," Studer Group's active contracts with healthcare organizations have steadily increased from 2006 to 2009 for both segments of its coaching business: general acute care hospitals and rural hospitals. Both of these groups receive Evidence-Based Leadership (EBL) coaching. The firm's average annual contract growth rate of 18 percent consistently outperforms the Association of Management Consulting Firms (AMCF) average of 5.5 percent.
- By using the same EBL techniques that it teaches, Studer Group has sustained high levels of CEO satisfaction and satisfaction with coaching. Since 2006, satisfaction ratings have ranged from 4.6 to 4.9 on a five-point scale, exceeding the Service Performance Insight (SPI) Best Benchmark of 4.3. High levels of satisfaction have translated into renewal rates that exceed 85 percent annually.
- With a focus on financial sustainability, Studer Group's revenues grew more than 30 percent annually since 2001, exceeding the AMCF average of 10 percent annual growth.
- Overall employee satisfaction, overall employee morale, and employee engagement based on attitude surveys conducted by Sperduto & Associates reached or exceeded the 90th percentile from 2006 to 2009 when compared to other organizations in the Sperduto database.
The other five 2010 Baldrige Award recipients-listed with their category-are:
- MEDRAD, Warrendale, Pa. (manufacturing). The manufacturer of medical devices is a second-time winner, having been selected in 2003 in the same category.
- Nestlé Purina PetCare Co., St. Louis, Mo. (manufacturing)
- Freese and Nichols Inc., Fort Worth, Texas (small business)
- K&N Management, Austin, Texas (small business)
- Montgomery County Public Schools, Rockville, Md. (education)
The 2010 Baldrige Award recipients were selected from a field of 83 applicants. All of the applicants were evaluated rigorously by an independent board of examiners in seven areas: leadership; strategic planning; customer focus; measurement, analysis and knowledge management; workforce focus; process management; and results.
The evaluation process for each of the recipients included about 1,000 hours of review and an on-site visit by a team of examiners to clarify questions and verify information in the applications.
