According to an annual survey by the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), 77% of the approximately 1,100 hospital CEOs who responded identified financial challenges as one of the top three issues confronting their hospitals. Patient safety and quality ranked second according to 43% of respondents, while care for the uninsured was third at 41%.

When asked what specific concerns faced their hospitals in the area of patient safety and quality, redesigning care processes and redesigning the work environment to reduce errors both received 66%, compliance with accrediting organizations got 60%, and medication errors was identified by 57% of respondents.

These strategic challenges help explain why healthcare organizations now account for roughly half of all Baldrige applications despite being one of six categories: Financial challenges, which are exacerbated by caring for the uninsured, are forcing hospitals to be as efficient as possible while still providing safe, high-quality patient care. The Baldrige model helps hospitals address all of these challenges by understanding how their management systems work, where their greatest opportunities for improvement are, and how they can make dramatic improvements quickly.

The nine hospitals and medical centers that have received the Baldrige Award demonstrate how to tackle all of these challenges at the same time. To find out how they did it, read their award application summaries, which are available through the Baldrige program.

You can read a summary of the ACHE survey here.

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