Case study: WI hospital wins Baldridge with tough standards

A Wisconsin health system has become one of five Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award winners by racking up a wide range of successes cutting across employee satisfaction, patient safety and outcomes measures. The system--Janesville, WI-based Mercy Health--won the award in part because it managed not only to lower total mortality rates to levels matching the top 15 percent of all hospitals nationwide, but also brought employee and physician satisfaction rankings to the 95th percentile and cut hospital-acquired infections to below best-practice benchmarks. This came despite the system's rapid growth in revenue, which has climbed from $33 million a year $850 million during the years between 1989 and the present.

How did Mercy accomplish this? Among other moves, executives there have been reviewing key metrics on quality, service and costs, and if the system's stats fall below 93 percent for a benchmark, the CEO immediately forms a team to find out why and address the problem. This includes every aspect of the system's operations, from housekeeping to bedside care.

To learn more about Mercy Health's accomplishments:
- read this Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article [1]

Related Articles:
Report: Quality of care increases slowly [2]
Study challenges volume-based quality goals [3]
Joint Commission says hospitals lag on key quality measures [4]
Joint Commission studies nursing care quality measures [5]
AHRQ: Patient safety improving, but slowly [6]