USA. Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for SSM health care

USA. Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for SSM health care

USA

Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for SSM health careKeywords: Award for excellence, Performance measures, Continuous quality improvement

The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award is given to US organizations that have exemplary achievements in seven areas: leadership, strategic planning, customer and market focus, information and analysis, human resource focus, process management, and results. The award promotes excellence in organizational performance, recognises the quality and performance achievements of US organizations, and publicizes successful performance strategies. It has five categories: manufacturing, service, small business, education and health care. Since 1988, 49 organizations have received the Baldrige Award and this is the first time that a winner has been named in the health care category.

The winner, SSM Health Care (SSMHC), based in St Louis, is a not-for-profit Catholic health system providing primary, secondary, and tertiary health care services. The system owns, manages, and is affiliated with 21 acute care hospitals and three nursing homes in four states: Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Oklahoma. Amongst SSMHC's wide range of excellent quality and performance achievements are the following:

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  As part of SSMHC's clinical collaborative process, physicians work with other caregivers, administrators, and staff to make rapid improvements in clinical outcomes. Selection of clinical collaboratives occurs in alignment with system goals, such as improving patient outcomes, satisfaction, and safety. SSMHC has undertaken six collaboratives, involving 85 teams in 2002, up from 14 teams in 1999. In addition, CARE PATHWAYS¹, protocols, and standing orders are used to outline a standardised plan of care for SSMHC's patients. These tools are designed with patient input and are intended to create partnerships with physicians to improve patient care.

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  The SSMHC system-wide "Healthy Communities" initiative was launched in 1995 to leverage the system's resources with those of the communities it serves. SSMHC requires each of its entities to actively engage in one or more community projects such as free dental clinics and campaigns to reduce smoking and drinking among teens. It encourages and supports employees at all levels of the organization to participate on teams involved in identifying opportunities for community outreach. In addition, SSMHC provides a significant amount of charity care to improve the health of the communities it serves.

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  SSMHC has established formal and informal listening and learning tools for former and current patients and their families; surveys are customized for each of the key segments. Tools include satisfaction surveys, market research, comment cards, a complaint management system, patient follow-up calls, and an Internet response system. In addition, SSMHC assesses potential patients and future markets through a variety of tools.

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  SSMHC uses an automated system to make clinical, financial, operational, customer, and market performance information available to all of its sites. For example, SSMHC makes data available to physician partners from any location via multiple devices, including personal computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), pagers, and fax machines. Connected physicians have increased steadily from 3,200 in 1999 to 7,288 in 2002.

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  SSMHC uses a Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) Process Design Model to design its key health care, support, and business processes. A CQI Process Improvement Model is used to make improvements to existing processes. For example, employee satisfaction data, internal customer feedback, and outcome and in-process measures are used to facilitate rapid identification and correction of potential problems.

Further information: for more information, see http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/baldrige2002.htm