A hospital in Illinois known as “Good Sam” and a healthcare consulting group in Florida are among the seven 2010 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award winners. And information technology is at the core of operations for both.

The awards are billed as the nation’s highest presidential honor for performance excellence through innovation, improvement and visionary leadership.

Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, Ill., a suburb of Chicago, is 333-bed, acute-care hospital that has evolved in the past 30 years to a nationally recognized leader in healthcare, known for its services in cardiology, gastroenterology, stroke care, women's health and behavioral health. It features a Level I trauma center and a certified Level III neonatal intensive care unit. “Good Sam” is part of Advocate Health Care, a top-10 health system in the nation.

The Studer Group is a private, for-profit healthcare consulting firm that provides coaching, teaching and evidenced-based tools and tactics to healthcare organizations throughout the United States. Quint Studer is the company’s founder and CEO.

“This award is unique in that it honors the collective effort of an entire organization that has systematically strived to achieve excellence in all aspects of its work,” said Commerce Secretary Gary Locke in announcing the award winners on Nov. 23, 2010. “Today's honorees demonstrate how teamwork and a shared vision can lead not only to organizational success but also to nationwide advancements in innovation and economic competitiveness.”

Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital President David Fox was quoted in the local newspaper TribLocal as saying, “In my mind this is the most significant award the hospital has been honored to receive.”

Good Samaritan Hospital demonstrates high levels of performance in many process measures for clinical outcomes. For example, risk-adjusted mortality (overall mortality divided by expected mortality, where 1 is the standard) decreased from 0.55 in 2007 to 0.42 in 2010, exceeding the six-county top-decile level as measured by Thomson Reuters.

In pursuit of its vision “to be the intellectual resource for healthcare professionals,” the Studer Group’s active contracts with healthcare organizations have steadily increased from 2006 to 2009 for both segments of its coaching business, general acute care hospitals and rural hospitals, said Studer. Both groups receive evidence-based leadership coaching, he said, and the firm’s average annual contract growth rate of 18 percent consistently outperforms the Association of Management Consulting Firms average of 5.5 percent.

The other 2010 Baldrige Award recipients, listed with their category, are:

• MEDRAD, of Warrendale, Pa. (manufacturing). The manufacturer of medical devices is a second-time winner, having been selected in 2003 in the same category.

• Nestlé Purina PetCare, of St. Louis, Mo. (manufacturing).

• Freese and Nichols, of Fort Worth, Texas (small business).

• K&N Management, of Austin, Texas (small business).

• Montgomery County Public Schools, of Rockville, Md. (education).

The 2010 Baldrige Award recipients were selected from a field of 83 applicants.