ABSTRACT: Baylor Health Care System is a nonprofit integrated delivery system based in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Baylor comprises a network of hospitals, primary care and specialty care centers, rehabilitation clinics, senior health centers, and affiliated ambulatory surgery centers. Founded over a century ago, it has grown from a one-building hospital to a 3,000-bed integrated system that uses electronic health records and numerous quality improvement tools. Baylor owns a 450-physician medical group subsidiary and is affiliated with 3,000 independent physicians who deliver care at 15 Baylor-owned, leased, or affiliated hospitals and six “short-stay” hospitals. Baylor uses training programs, as well as physicians, to encourage systemwide initiatives and cement the quality mission across the system. The system has successfully implemented electronic health records, decreased mortality rates, and standardized care.
INTRODUCTION This case study describes the many successful quality innovations implemented by Baylor Health Care System (BHCS), how the organization accomplished them, and the lessons learned. As a result of BHCS’s Board of Trustees and affiliated physicians’ motivation to fulfill this mission, BHCS’s patients receive significantly more preventive services, the hospital mortality rate has dropped substantially over the last few years, and the delivery of care is far more standardized than in the past