Health First Medical Group Honored With Governor’s Sterling Award, First Ever for a Medical Group

By  //  May 18, 2023

Health First Medical Group has nearly 500 providers and 1,500 associates who support more than 30 offices

Physicians, administrators and staff at Health First Medical Group are celebrating the news that the Florida Sterling Council has named Brevard County’s leading medical specialty group a Governor’s Sterling Award winner for 2023. In more than 30 years and nearly 100 awards, no medical group has ever been awarded the Governor’s Sterling Award for excellence in management and operations. (Health First image)

Medical Group is also said to be the first nationally to succeed using the Baldridge Criteria for Performance Excellence.

BREVARD COUNTY • ROCKLEDGE, FLORIDA – Physicians, administrators and staff at Health First Medical Group are celebrating the news that the Florida Sterling Council has named Brevard County’s leading medical specialty group a Governor’s Sterling Award winner for 2023.

In more than 30 years and nearly 100 awards, no medical group has ever been awarded the Governor’s Sterling Award for excellence in management and operations.

Health First Medical Group is a multi-specialty and primary care medical group that is part of the Health First Integrated Delivery Network in Brevard County, Florida that includes a Level II Trauma Center at Holmes Regional Medical Center, three community hospitals, doctor’s offices, outpatient and wellness services, and a health plan.

Health First is the area’s largest non-governmental employer with more than 9,000 physicians, advanced practice practitioners, leaders and associates.

Health First Medical Group has nearly 500 providers and 1,500 associates who support more than 30 offices, 11 imaging centers, 10 labs, two breast centers and four joint-ventured Urgent Care centers in partnership with AdventHealth Centra Care. Each year, it serves 180,000 patients and schedules more than 1 million visits.

“We’re very excited to be a selected as a role model organization,” says Frank Letherby, President of Community Health Services.

“As excited as we all are to receive the Governor’s Sterling Award, we were really enthusiastic to go on this journey to elevate our performance in pursuit of operational excellence.”

“We’re very excited to be a selected as a role model organization,” says Frank Letherby, President of Community Health Services. “As excited as we all are to receive the Governor’s Sterling Award, we were really enthusiastic to go on this journey to elevate our performance in pursuit of operational excellence.”

The selection process for the Governor’s Sterling Award is grueling, intended to identify the best of the best. It began last year for HFMG and consisted of an extensive 160-page application using the nationally recognized Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence, multiple interviews over a six-week period, and an intensive week-long site visit with 10 Sterling examiners.

A panel of Sterling Council judges ultimately makes the final determination, selecting organizations that represent performance excellence role-model organization status for the State of Florida.

“We chose to put ourselves out there and pursue the Sterling Award because we want to represent excellence in the care and services we provide to our community,” said Mike Mullowney, Chief Operating Officer of Health First Medical Group.

“The Sterling process has allowed us to test our organization against the Baldridge Criteria for Performance Excellence, the highest bar for quality and performance excellence.”

“We chose to put ourselves out there and pursue the Sterling Award because we want to represent excellence in the care and services we provide to our community,” said Mike Mullowney, Chief Operating Officer of Health First Medical Group. “The Sterling process has allowed us to test our organization against the Baldridge Criteria for Performance Excellence, the highest bar for quality and performance excellence.”

According to feedback from judges, the distinguishing factors in Health First Medical Group’s Governor’s Sterling Award were these:

■ A culture of valuing people – clients and associates alike – that was evident in all interactions
■ Leadership effectiveness from the top administrators to the front-line managers
■ Success from the “dyad structure” of Provider Leaders (medical doctors in operational roles) and their engagement in the culture of service

“We’re honored to have an outside organization recognize something that is in our matrix each and every day – welcoming patients in for excellent care,” Letherby said.

For more than 30 years, the Governor’s Sterling Award has recognized organizations and businesses in Florida that have successfully achieved performance excellence within their management and operations.

The Florida Sterling Council uses the nationally recognized Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence, a proven leadership framework that has resulted in The Sterling Council leading organizations to outstanding results, including state and national comparative and benchmark levels, which directly supports its mission to elevate performance excellence.

According to the council, Health First Medical Group is the only medical group in the United States ever to have succeeded under the Baldridge criteria.

Health First Medical Group has nearly 500 providers and 1,500 associates who support more than 30 offices, 11 imaging centers, 10 labs, two breast centers and four joint-ventured Urgent Care centers in partnership with AdventHealth Centra Care. Each year, it serves 180,000 patients and schedules more than 1 million visits. (Health First image)

 

“We came into this process wanting to test our belief that we can be a role model for other medical groups in the country in operational excellence, and we did that,” Mullowney said.

“This is a big deal, not only for the leadership team at Health First Medical Group, but the physicians, the managers, and the front-line patient experience specialists who feel so proud to be a part of their individual practices,” said Dana Brandenstein, Vice President of Value Based Care at Health First Medical Group.

“The bar is high in Brevard County. We’re an attractive place to live and work and retire. Health First Medical Group must be first in its class. Our community expects it.”

Brevard County is a great place to be by national standards. U.S. News & World Report ranked it a top 20 place to live, and No. 4 to retire. As one of the area’s largest employers, Health First contributes to this high standard of living.

As a not-for-profit, Health First contributed more than $180 million in direct community support in 2021, the last reported year.

To learn more about Health First Medical Group, visit the website HF.org.

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