What's Your Best Quality?

Hospitals and the public often think about quality in hospitals in the context of safety. This is absolutely a very important aspect of quality, but I want to delve deeper into quality. When was the last time your hospital looked at total organizational quality?

Many hospitals have heard of the Malcolm Baldrige award for quality. In fact, last year two health care organizations won this award.

Mercy Health System
Sharp Healthcare

There are six criteria that Baldrige award nominies are judged on including:

1. Leadership`
2. Strategic Planning
3. Customer & Market Focus
4. Measurement & Analysis
5. Workforce Focus
6. Process Management

We will explore each of these criteria in the coming weeks hoping to find something that you can institute at your hospital to improve your organizational quality. Please leave comments about anything that you may do at your hospital to address these criteria.