Managing Innovation In Hospitals And Health Systems: Lessons From The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Winners

Hospitals and other health systems increasingly must rely on innovation as they seek creative approaches for improving patient outcomes while simultaneously dealing with regulatory and cost constraints. The management of innovation is an integral component of hospitals/healthcare systems that are recognized for their excellence by the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award in Health Care. Using a framework based on in the 2011-2012 Healthcare Criteria for Performance Excellence and organizational literature, this paper identifies the best practices in innovation as demonstrated by the 15 Baldridge winners. The results indicate that Baldridge winners engage in Innovation Leadership by incorporating innovation into their vision, mission, and values statements and explicitly stating support from senior leadership; strategic planning for innovation by including innovation initiatives in strategic goals and action plans and soliciting stakeholder involvement in innovation; and management of innovation processes by integrating innovation with performance improvement efforts and harnessing human resources. Best practices are summarized to guide leaders in other hospitals/healthcare systems in bringing innovation to the forefront of their initiatives.