Mercy Health System’s quest for quality pays off

Mercy Health System, which serves southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois, has won the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Mercy Health was one of the two healthcare systems among the five winners this year, and Mercy representatives say the award is the culmination of a roughly seven-year effort. The results of the effort can be seen in how Mercy Health ranks in benchmarks. The system lowered infection rates from catheters to 0.5%, compared with the best-practice benchmark of 1.6%; lowered mortality rates for pneumonia to 1.2%, significantly below the best-practice benchmark of 4%; and has a total mortality rate of 2.3% that matches the rate of the top 15% of hospitals nationwide.