Greater Baltimore Medical Center (GBMC) HealthCare Receives the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for healthcare

This year, Greater Baltimore Medical Center (GBMC) HealthCare took its place as a role model organization at the 2021 Quest for Excellence conference. The annual conference is an opportunity for participants to learn about best practices in performance management from the current winners of the prestigious Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Awards.

GBMC joins an elite group of only 29 healthcare organizations to receive the award since its inception in 1987. Premier is a past recipient of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for healthcare.

What Is the Baldrige Award?

The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award was established by Congress during the Reagan administration. It was intended to improve the quality of U.S. goods and services and to enhance the competitiveness of U.S. businesses. It is the only Presidential award for performance excellence, and there is only one winner each year in each category: manufacturing, service company, small business, education, healthcare, and non-profit.

The Baldrige award criteria have become a gold standard of excellence, recognized around the world. Candidates for the award are assessed in seven different areas:

• Leadership
• Strategy
• Customers
• Measurement, analysis, and knowledge management
• Workforce
• Operations
• Results

Success Story: Greater Baltimore Medical Center Healthcare

The GBMC Healthcare system is a large network that includes the 342-bed, non-profit Greater Baltimore Medical Center, as well as the Gilchrist and Gilchrist Hospice. Gilchrist is the largest eldercare company in Maryland.

GBMC also encompasses the GBMC Partners collective which includes more than 300 medical professionals such as primary care providers, advanced practice clinicians, specialists, and hundreds of support staff. Greater Baltimore Medical Center itself handles roughly 52,000 emergency room visits and 23,000 admissions annually.

In 2021, GBMC was awarded the prestigious Baldrige award. The healthcare system showed stellar performance in all areas and it became the first and only healthcare system in Maryland to receive this award.

Why were they honored with this award?

• GBMC boasts a 5-star rating — the highest possible rating — from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. Only eight of Maryland’s 45 hospitals achieved this rating in 2020.
• GBMC’s Nurse Residency Program, along with only 60 others worldwide, achieved accreditation with distinction.
• GBMC is an industry leader for medical service line results. 100 percent of stroke patients received antithrombotic therapy at discharge. All high-risk mothers received antenatal steroids, and 100 percent of patients received combination chemotherapy for breast cancer.
• Between 2016 and 2019, GBMC increased its net cash from operations by $15 million. And despite the ravages of COVID-19, it has increased its cash-to-total debt from 200 percent to 340 percent.

GBMC is also the recipient of the Davies Award and was recognized for being a healthcare organization with some of the highest access to information in the country. GBMC is one of only 11 organizations worldwide to receive this award.

Partners in Excellence

GBMC and Premier have a history of working in partnership to produce these outstanding results. GBMC is a member of Premier’s Group Purchasing Organization (GPO) and Premier played a role in the organization’s application for the Baldrige Award. GBMC’s CFO and supply chain team highlighted Premier as an integral strategic partner in helping them achieve their goals, and look forward to an ongoing partnership.