Study: Baldrige Award Recipient Hospitals Significantly Outperform Their Peers

A new report has found that health care organizations that have won Baldrige National Quality Awards for performance excellence or been considered for a Baldrige Award site visit outperform other hospitals in nearly every metric.

            The report found that Baldrige-winning hospitals were six times more likely to be counted among the top 3 percent of hospitals in the United States and that they statistically outperform their peers on core measures established by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The study was conducted by Thomson Reuters.

            “The results of the Thomson Reuters study confirm what we’ve known for years: using the Baldrige Criteria and the earnest pursuit of the Baldrige evaluation will improve your organization by nearly every measure of success, be it in outcomes, safety, customer and employee satisfaction, or profitability,” says Harry Hertz, Baldrige Performance Excellence Program director.

            Originally given only to manufacturers, small businesses, and service companies, Congress and the president broadened the Baldrige Award program in 1998 to include education and health care organizations. Nonprofit organizations, including government agencies, became eligible for the award in 2007. The first health care organization to receive the award was SSM Health Care (www.nist.gov/baldrige/ssmhealth.cfm) of St. Louis, Missouri, in 2002. Health care organizations have accounted for more than 50 percent of Baldrige Award applicants since 2005.

            For more information, visit www.baldrige.nist.gov.