When compared to geographically close competitors, hospitals that have received the Baldrige National Quality Award outperformed on patient experience scores, according to a study in the Quality Management Journal covered by NIST Tech Beat.
To conduct the study, researchers parsed through 39 measures that hospitals publicly report to CMS, including data on healthcare processes, patient experience and patient outcomes. They looked at all healthcare organizations that have received a Baldrige Award — the nation's most prestigious award recognizing excellence in performance and innovation — between 2002 and 2011. Those hospitals were then compared to hospitals in their 25- to 50-mile radius.
They found that hospitals that won the Baldrige Award had higher HCAHPS scores for patient satisfaction.
"The HCAHPS patient survey results were the most significant findings in this study," the study reads. "Hospitals that use [Baldrige Health Care Criteria for Performance Excellence] had higher means and lower standards of deviation than the non-HCPE hospitals in all 10 measures."
The study concludes: "The results of this study help validate the effectiveness of the [Baldrige Health Care Criteria] as a framework to achieve performance excellence and meet the continuous increasing stakeholder requirements related to value."