How Baldrige Health Care Leaders Succeed

This book is based on several years study of the nine Baldrige Award winners from health care. It describes how these organizations approached their “Baldrige journey” and what other health care leaders should do to reap similar benefits. To fully understand the journey for these nine organizations and their return on investment, the authors studied each of their 50-page award applications, presentations at national and regional meetings, and other publications by or about them. Additionally and most importantly, CEOs and other senior leaders were interviewed at length. The questions asked of these leaders followed three basic themes: How did you successfully use the Baldrige framework to drive improvement? What would you recommend other organizations do to gain the value you have from a Baldrige journey? What can we learn from you that would help other organizations manage their improvement journeys to maximize the value they gain? “Health reform is making it clear: healthcare organizations improving to great clinical, financial, and experience outcomes will win and thrive for the communities they serve. Yet research teaches us that most change fails. Journey to Excellence, through ‘brutal truth,’ inspirational storytelling, courageous journeys, disciplined research, and sustained results, shows us the way, the very hard way, as well as the awesome possibility.” Jim Conway, SVP, Institute for Healthcare Improvement “W. Edwards Deming spoke of consistent, business-driving quality as arising from ‘a system of production.’ At best, health care delivery in most places today is bubbling chaos. The Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award supplies the only practical, comprehensive outline for health care as a system of production in existence today. It’s about time that health care leaders had a comprehensive guide. Taught by experts, this volume is drawn from careful analysis of those who have succeeded. You hold the future in your hands – at least, for those who will not only survive, but thrive in the coming turmoil of health care reform.” Brent James, MD, Intermountain Health Care “Journey to Excellence is an insightful synthesis of the powerful Baldrige framework and the real life journeys of the healthcare award winners. Their stories will deepen understanding both for those new to and experienced with the Baldrige Criteria. This book is a major contribution to achieving healthcare excellence!” Louise Liang, MD, Former Chair, Institute for Healthcare Improvement “Most healthcare organizations are currently in a purely reactive mode – just struggling to get through the day and the fiscal year, collecting the data that they are required to report, and responding to crises. In Journey to Excellence, Goonan and her co-authors show healthcare leaders how to take control of the agenda. The Baldrige Criteria define the journey that can help organizations approach greatness, and the authors’ LASER set of behaviors describes what they need to ‘pack’ for the trip.” Tom Lee, MD, Network President, Partners Healthcare System “Journey to Excellence provides a concrete framework for leaders seeking to improve their organizational performance. Health care organizations are likely to face increasing pressure to improve quality and reduce cost in the coming years. Goonan, Muzikowski, and Stoltz offer a strategic roadmap for a successful transformational change. This book contains real life stories of leaders who used Baldrige to successfully transform their organizations into high performance enterprises.” Vinod K. Sahney, Chief Strategy Officer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts