MEDRAD, Inc.

The Western Pennsylvania Healthcare Consortium

Brief Description

As a recipient of the 2003 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Healthcare Award, MEDRAD wanted to share best practices for quality improvement. The Pittsburgh-based provider of medical devices and services that enable or enhance imaging procedures for the human body also wanted to act on its corporate mission to improve the quality of healthcare. MEDRAD decided to begin sharing what it had learned from the Baldrige process and to act on its mission right in its hometown. To do so, MEDRAD retained WordWrite Communications to help create, plan and execute the Western Pennsylvania Healthcare Consortium, a forum at which Pittsburgh-area hospital CEOs and senior healthcare administrators heard from the top executive teams of two hospital organizations that were also recipients of the Baldridge award in 2003 (Baptist Hospital of Pensacola, Fla., and St. Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City, Mo.). MEDRAD, as host of the event, structured a day of learning and sharing about organizational effectiveness in healthcare, and ways that healthcare might be further improved in the region.

Need/Opportunity

MEDRAD received the 2003 Baldrige Award (MBNQA) in the manufacturing category.  As a condition of their participation in the rigorous Baldrige process, MBNQA recipient companies are strongly encouraged to share what they learn about quality improvement with other organizations. Since MEDRAD is a key supplier to hospital organizations, CEO John Friel and the company’s quality team, led by senior vice president Rose Almon-Martin, wanted to reach the healthcare organizations the company serves.

Before confirming that a consortium would be the best way to meet these goals, WordWrite designed and administered a survey on MEDRAD’s behalf to a select group of ten top local hospital executives.  Based on the feedback from the survey, MEDRAD decided to host a one-day consortium in January 2005.

Audience

MEDRAD wanted to help hospital organizations in Southwestern Pennsylvania learn more about advancing healthcare excellence through the Baldrige process.  Based on its own experiences, MEDRAD has learned that the quality process is driven from the top. For that reason, WordWrite helped MEDRAD focus on inviting top-level hospital management to the Consortium.  Invitations went to 70 hospital chief executive officers, chief financial officers, chief medical officers, chief nursing officers, directors of quality/performance excellence and vice presidents of patient care services. 

Goals and Objectives

The goal of the Consortium was to create an environment in which CEOs and other top executives from local hospital organizations could learn how to use Baldrige principles to advance healthcare excellence from their peers at MBQNA recipient hospitals. A secondary goal was to fulfill its mission of improving the quality of healthcare and third, to elevate MEDRAD’s profile within the Pittsburgh healthcare community. When MEDRAD had first been named a recipient, the company had earned a fair bit of local media coverage and notoriety. CEO John Friel and his team wanted to build on the company’s reputation by giving back to the community that MEDRAD and its employees call home.

Project Description

The Western Pennsylvania Healthcare Consortium was an invitation-only forum for top-level hospital management held January 24, 2005 at the Regional Learning Alliance in Cranberry Township, Pa.  The event began with a CEO-only breakfast that included an interactive session with the CEOs of the two MBNQA recipient hospitals and a senior Alumni Baldrige examiner.  The remainder of the day included a keynote address by MEDRAD’s president and CEO, and presentations by the CEOs and senior staff of the two Baldrige Award recipient hospitals, describing their organizational excellence programs.  During lunch, attendees who shared similar job responsibilities were seated together to facilitate networking and information sharing.  A reception concluded the day, allowing attendees to talk to presenters and share their thoughts on their newly acquired information with one another.

WordWrite Communications handled project planning, including everything from banner location to luncheon seating assignments, as well as logo design, preparation and duplication of materials, writing responsibilities, media relations, research and on-site coordination the day of the event.

In addition to the direct contact with participants and potential participants through the pre-event survey and invitations, WordWrite also helped MEDRAD executives with two stories on the consortium that appeared in the local business journal, which is closely read by hospital senior management, and in the business section of the dominant local daily paper. As well, MEDRAD reached out to elected officials who help shape healthcare policy, and U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart responded by not only endorsing the Consortium, but by providing a personalized video message to open the Consortium and add credibility to the event. Representatives of other appointed and elected officials at the federal and state level also attended the Consortium.

Measurement/Evaluation

The Western Pennsylvania Healthcare Consortium met its objective by bringing together dozens of executives from area hospital organizations to interact with top executives from two hospitals that were 2003 recipients of the MBNQA in healthcare.  Attendees included chief executive officers, chief operating officers, vice presidents of patient care services, directors of quality services and medical records, vice presidents of nursing services and medical directors.

After the consortium, attendees were given a questionnaire to provide MEDRAD with feedback on the consortium and their priorities for 2005.  Sixty-nine percent of respondents strongly agreed that the program met their expectations for learning about Baldrige and 77 percent strongly agreed that they had a better understanding of how other hospitals have used Baldrige principles to improve organizational effectiveness.   Fifty-four percent strongly agreed that the forum met their expectations for exchanging ideas with other leaders.  Attendees also said they left the consortium with a better understanding of what resources are available to them to improve their organization’s overall effectiveness.