NEWS RELEASE	FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 15, 2008 CONTACT: Stacy Fiedler, NQF, 202 783 1300 or press@qualityforum.org

National Quality Forum presents Baylor Healthcare Systems with 2008 National Quality Healthcare Award

Washington, DC - The National Quality Forum (NQF) today presented Baylor Healthcare Systems with the National Quality Healthcare Award.  The award was presented at a gala and reception in Washington DC honoring Baylor. This marks the award’s 15th year.

The National Quality Healthcare award is given each year to exemplary healthcare organizations who are role models for achieving meaningful, sustainable quality improvement in healthcare, and is presented in partnership with Modern Healthcare and Studer Group.

“Other systems can learn much from Baylor’s experiences in improving their public reporting and measurement programs. They are an exemplary model,” said NQF president and CEO Janet Corrigan. “We deserve a health care system that is of the highest quality – and that starts with measuring what is really important to patients, building infrastructure, ensuring transparency through reporting, and truly coordinating care. Baylor went the extra mile – and we expect they will keep doing so. We hope this award and their example encourages others to do the same.”

The National Quality Healthcare Award recipient is selected through a blinded review by a panel of jurors who score the applications on the following criteria:

• effective prioritization of performance improvement goals,
• well-designed and deployed “dashboard” to measure and manage whole system performance,
• data-driven improvement of chronic care,
• commitment to transparency, and
• demonstrated results on publicly reported performance measures

Jurors for the 2008 National Quality Healthcare Award were: Chairman George Isham, HealthPartners; Vice Chairman Gary Gottlieb, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Rhonda Anderson, Banner Desert Medical Center; Maureen Corry, Childbirth Connection; James Dwyer, Virtua Health; Cecily Hall, Microsoft; Audrey Nelson, Center of Inquiry; Richard Popiel, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield; Louise Probst, St. Louis Business Health Coalition; Carolyn Scott, KPMG; Sunil Sinha, CMS.

Prior recipients of the National Quality Healthcare Award include HealthPartners, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Northwest Memorial Hospital, Trinity Health, and Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network.  For a complete list of past recipients visit: http://www.qualityforum.org/awards/award-winners.asp

Baylor stood out because the whole organization was solid in terms of acting on its commitment to quality,” NQF jury chairman, George Isham said in an interview with Modern Healthcare. “That degree of depth and commitment and follow-through isn’t as common as we need it to be in healthcare.”

The National Quality Healthcare Award was created in 1993 as the first award of its kind to recognize outstanding quality-driven healthcare organizations. For 15 years, first through the National Committee for Quality Health Care and now through the National Quality Forum, the award has provided encouragement for improvements in quality through public recognition of organizations' accomplishments.

About NQF. The mission of the National Quality Forum (www.qualityforum.org) is to improve the quality of American health care by setting national priorities and goals for performance improvement, endorsing national consensus standards for measuring and publicly reporting on performance, and promoting the attainment of national goals through education and outreach programs. NQF, a non-profit organization (qualityforum.org) with diverse stakeholders across the public and private health sectors, was established in 1999 and is based in Washington, DC.