In 2017, Main Line Health set an ambitious goal: eliminate disparities and preventable harm while achieving top decile results around quality and performance, reduce costs through more informed operational decisions, and improve the patient and employee experience.
Main Line Health, a not-for-profit health system serving portions of Philadelphia and its western suburbs, adopted Baldrige as a framework to better serve these communities. The health system sought to apply Baldrige best practices to reduce operational costs by millions of dollars and achieve next-level performance excellence throughout the system.
But the work would not be easy.
Much of the “low-hanging fruit” in operational cost reduction had been optimized, and Main Line Health needed to change its culture and build new capabilities. It would take strong leadership, dedicated oversight, expertise in change management, and deep familiarity with Baldrige principles and processes to achieve its goals.