Henry Ford Health System

Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award
2011 Award Recipient, Health Care

Highest-Ranking Official*
Nancy Schlichting
Chief Executive Officer

Public Affairs Contact

*At time of award

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For more information
Henry Ford Health System
1 Ford Place, 3A
Detroit, Mich. 48202
(313) 874-2489
baldrigejourney [at] hfhs.org (baldrigejourney[at]hfhs[dot]org)
http://www.henryford.com

Henry Ford Health System (HFHS), headquartered in Detroit, Mich., is one of the nation's leading comprehensive, integrated health systems. It provides health insurance and health care delivery, including acute, specialty, primary, and preventive care services backed by excellence in research and education. Founded in 1915 by auto pioneer Henry Ford, HFHS is committed to improving the health and well-being of a diverse community.

HFHS includes seven hospitals (a large, Level 1 trauma flagship hospital; four community hospitals; and two psychiatric facilities); 33 multispecialty ambulatory care centers; affiliated physician practices; a research and education component; the Health Alliance Plan (providing health coverage to more than 467,000 members); and 91 community care operations including outpatient behavioral health, nursing homes, hospices, and dialysis centers, and a broad range of retail operations offering services such as optometry and home medical products. The 140 sites with HFHS facilities serve a three-county region in southeast Michigan encompassing Detroit and its suburbs.

The HFHS workforce of 29,856 includes 24,322 employees; 2,200 independent community physicians; and 3,334 volunteers. Revenue in 2010 was $4.08 billion.

Highlights

• HFHS's performance on core measures publicly reported for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is at the 90th percentile for 75 percent of the reporting areas across the system's seven inpatient hospitals.

• HFHS maintained a positive net operating income of greater than $25 million per year from 2007 to 2010 despite significant increases in uncompensated care, which grew from approximately $130 million in 2007 to approximately $200 million in 2010.

• In 2011, the Health Alliance Plan was rated number one for member satisfaction among all health insurance plans in Michigan by J.D. Powers and Associates.

• HFHS community benefit efforts, combined with the organization's other community support activities, contributed an overall economic benefit to southeast Michigan of $5.8 billion in 2010.

Number One in Customer Satisfaction

• In 2011, the Health Alliance Plan was rated number one for member satisfaction among all health insurance plans in Michigan by J.D. Powers and Associates.
• HFHS's customer engagement and satisfaction results for the Health Alliance Plan have met or exceeded the National Committee for Quality Assurance's 90th percentile level from 2007 to 2010.
• Satisfaction with HFHS's ambulatory hospitals (medical centers) exceeded the 90th percentile level for southeast Michigan in a 2011 survey by Press Ganey (a national consulting firm focused on improving health care performance). Approximately 80 percent of patients said they were likely to recommend the organization.

Care That Consistently Measures Up

• HFHS's performance on core measures publicly reported for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is at the 90th percentile for 75 percent of the reporting areas across the system's seven inpatient hospitals. HFHS's benchmark performance includes 100 percent compliance with all composite measures for heart attacks at the West Bloomfield Hospital and 100 percent compliance with composite heart failure measures at the Macomb Hospital–Warren Campus.
• HFHS's commitment to patient safety is emphasized through its evidenced-based global harm campaign (evidence-based medicine integrates an individual doctor's examining and diagnostic skills for a specific patient with the best available evidence from medical research) to reduce or eliminate some 23 sources of harm. According to the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, this program is a national best practice. HFHS's performance in relation to overall global harm has improved from approximately 60 harm events per 1,000 patients in the first quarter of 2008 to 40 harm events per 1,000 patients in the second quarter of 2011.A prime example of this success is Henry Ford Hospital's reduction in central-line infections from 10 per year to three since 2008.

Health Care Leader = Market Leader

• HFHS is the market leader for the tri-county southeast Michigan area and continues to demonstrate favorable increases in marketplace performance. The system has increased its inpatient market share by an average of 3 percent per year since 2004.
• HFHS has recorded increases in births (6.5 percent from 2007 to 2010), emergency department visits (12.6 percent from 2008 to 2011), and community care services (CCS) volume (20 percent from 2008 to 2011). One specific area within CCS that has experienced significant growth, even while competing in the open marketplace, is the Pharmacy Advantage retail unit, with a compound annual growth rate of 25 percent for the past four years.
• Despite operating in one of the most economically depressed regions of the country, HFHS has maintained an "A1" bond rating from Moody's, with a stable outlook for the next five years. It also has maintained approximately 100 days cash on hand for the past four years, a measure comparable to the level of its best-performing competitor.
• HFHS maintained a positive net operating income of greater than $25 million per year from 2007 to 2010 despite significant increases in uncompensated care, which grew from approximately $130 million in 2007 to approximately $200 million in 2010.

Innovative Ideas Become Proven Successes

• HFHS's leaders model and support entrepreneurism throughout the health care delivery system, research operations, and the Health Alliance Plan. Innovative strategies and solutions have been developed and implemented for the past decade, helping reduce unintended patient harm and establishing a "zero-defect, no-excuses" approach to health care outcomes.
• Using both short- and long-term planning horizons, HFHS senior leaders make decisions that effectively balance the need to provide quality care while also sustaining and building the business. By leveraging partnerships—including those with the University of Michigan, Wayne State University, and academic institutions in Canada—and providing profitable products and services, HFHS is able to offset the cost of its core services (e.g., the hospitals and medical centers) that are less profitable.
• Among the best-in-class innovations at HFHS: the Perfect Depression Program, which uses an evidenced-based, integrated approach to address chronic depression; Home Health Services, Pharmacy Advantage, and OptimEyes (optometry care), all services with a retail presence to increase brand recognition and access to new customers; and the West Bloomfield "hospital model," in which a new hospital was built from scratch with the active involvement of the community (resulting in a facility with features such as a Culinary Wellness Program and an innovative building design with a "Main Street" feel).

Serving Southeast Michigan with More than Health Care

• The HFHS workforce supports southeast Michigan with annually increasing levels of community service. Examples include the American Heart Association's Heart Walk (for which HFHS is the number one contributing health system in the country and third-ranked company overall in 2011); the growing number of volunteers involved in philanthropic activities (from fewer than 1,000 in 2006 to greater than 2,300 in 2011); and an increasing number of volunteer hours (from under 300,000 in 2006 to above 500,000 in 2010).
• Monetary support of HFHS's communities by employees increased from about $2 million in 2006 to just over $3 million in 2010.
• Overall, HFHS community benefit initiatives have increased by almost 78 percent since 2006, with benefits increasing from nearly $220,000 to just under $400,000. These community benefit efforts, combined with HFHS's other community support activities, contributed an overall economic benefit to southeast Michigan of $5.8 billion in 2010.

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