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. That ended this week when The Sterling Council named Brevard County’s leading medical specialty group, Health First Medical Group, a Governor’s Sterling Award winner for 2023.

“We’re very excited to be a selected as a role model organization,” said 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.”  

READ the full news story in Space Coast Daily HERE.