Top-100 List Again Demonstrates Baldrige Impact in U.S. Health Care

In early March, Truven Health Analytics released its annual study identifying the 100 top hospitals based on their overall organizational performance.

As in previous years, health care organizations using the Baldrige Health Care Criteria for Performance Excellence as a management framework were well represented. Some of these organizations have been formally recognized by the national Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award or state and sector-specific Baldrige-based awards of Alliance for Performance Excellence programs across the country. Other organizations on the list have applied for Baldrige feedback/recognition at the national or state levels but cannot be publicly named as applicants due to confidentiality policies of the award programs.

According to Truven, the health care organizations on its list have achieved performance excellence and are leading their peer hospitals in demonstrating high-quality patient outcomes while improving efficiency. Truven states that based on the results of this year's study, if all Medicare inpatients received the same level of care as those treated in the award-winning facilities, the following would be possible:
 

• More than 165,000 additional lives could be saved.
• Nearly 90,000 additional patients could be complication-free.
• $5.4 billion could be saved.
• The average patient stay would decrease by nearly half a day.

In addition, in releasing its 2013 100 top-hospitals list (PDF), Truven Health Analytics stated that by using publicly available data, it learned that the best hospitals and health systems do the following:
 

• 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

National Baldrige Award winners or Baldrige-based Alliance program award winners that made the 2014 list include the following:

• Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital (Downers Grove, IL), 2010 Illinois Performance Excellence recipient, 2010 Baldrige Award recipient
• Advocate Lutheran General Hospital (Park Ridge, IL), 2012 Illinois Performance Excellence recipient
• Duke University Hospital (Durham, NC), 2013 Governor's Award of Performance Excellence in Healthcare recipient (North Carolina)
• INOVA Fair Oaks Hospital (Fairfax, VA), 2006 U.S. Senate Productivity and Quality Award (VA) recipient
• Kettering Medical Center (Kettering, OH)—parent Kettering Health Network, 2010 Governor's Award for Excellence (OH) recipient
• SSM St. Joseph Hospital West Lake (Saint Louis, MO)—parent SSM Health Care, 2011 Missouri Quality Award recipient, 2002 Baldrige Award recipient
• 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 recipient
• Sutter Davis Hospital (Davis, CA), 2012 Governor's Award for Performance Excellence (CA) recipient; 2013 Baldrige Award recipient
• Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Rockwall (Rockwall, TX)—parent Texas Health Resources, 2013 Texas Award for Performance Excellence recipient
• University of Colorado Hospital (Aurora, CO)—part of a joint operating agreement with Poudre Valley Health System, 2010 Rocky Mountain Performance Excellence recipient, 2008 Baldrige Award recipient

The close relationship between top-performing hospitals and the Baldrige Criteria was also a significant finding in a 2012 Truven survey of hospital chief executive officers. That affirmation of the Baldrige impact on health care reemphasized 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 site visit outperform other hospitals in nearly every metric used to determine the 100 top hospitals, including metrics for patient outcomes(mortality, complications, safety), core measures, HCAHPS, and profitability/expenses.