The Henry Ford Health System built its first new hospital since 1915 a couple years ago in West Bloomfield, 30 minutes from downtown Detroit. According to William C. Taylor, the hospital “truly must be seen to be believed.” (“One Hospital’s Radical Prescription for Change,” HBR, June 2, 2010)

Here are a few things that made Taylor a believer:

• The hospital sits on a wooded 160-acre campus
• All 300 rooms are private and designed so that family members can stay overnight if they wish
• All patients go right to pre-assigned rooms when they arrive
• A concierge helps patients and families with errands
• A “tea sommelier” recommends different teas for different situations
• There’s a day spa and an indoor farmer’s market every Wednesday
• There’s a 90-seat demonstration kitchen to teach patients’ families and the community how to prepare better food
• A celebrity chef spent two years creating 3,000 healthy recipes for patients to choose from
• The atrium features more than 2,000 trees lining paths to shops that sell products that can improve health

There’s a Baldrige connection to this story: West Bloomfield’s new CEO is Gerard van Grinsven, who joined Henry Ford after a long career with two-time Baldrige Award winner Ritz-Carlton. Skeptics questioned the wisdom of hiring someone with no healthcare experience to run the new hospital. Van Grinsven thinks it was a smart move. “I had a fresh pair of eyes and no baggage when I arrived,” he said. “The real opportunity for reinvention is to rethink the role of a hospital. How do we position ourselves as a community center for well-being—as a destination that helps everyone to lead a healthier life?”

His leadership and vision seem to be paying off: West Bloomfield is filled to capacity, patient satisfaction scores are very high, infection rates and other quality problems are at a minimum, employee morale is high, and turnover is low.

The innovation at West Bloomfield reflects the attitude of Henry Ford’s leaders. As Robert Riney, the system’s COO, said, “How can you look at the situation in our industry and say the answer is to make incremental change?”

To read more about quality in healthcare, click on these articles:

• 10 Healthcare Innovations
• A Healthcare Role Model
• Baldrige Saves Lives
• Why Baldrige? Saint Luke’s Makes the Case
• Disruptive Innovation and Healthcare

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