GBMC NICU Recognized with Circle of Honor Award for Patient Safety Excellence

Greater Baltimore Medical Center is proud to share our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) team has been recognized as a 2026 Circle of Honor Award recipient by the Mid-Atlantic Patient Safety Center (MPSC) through its prestigious Minogue Awards program. 

The Circle of Honor distinction is one of the program’s highest recognitions, awarded to healthcare organizations whose work exemplifies a sustained commitment to patient safety, a thoughtful application of improvement science, and strong leadership engagement in partnership with frontline teams. 

This recognition honors innovative work within GBMC’s NICU that applied the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Model for Improvement to strengthen the safety and reliability of skin-to-skin care. While skin-to-skin care is widely recognized as a best practice in neonatal medicine, our team took a deeper look at how to make this trusted practice even safer and more consistent. Through disciplined tests of change, collaboration across nursing leadership, and meaningful engagement of frontline clinicians, the team advanced a system-based approach that reinforces both safety and compassion in care delivery. 

Nearly 50 submissions from across the Mid-Atlantic region were reviewed by a panel of healthcare experts. In addition to the first-place Minogue Award for Patient Safety Innovation and the Distinguished Achievement Award, the Circle of Honor recognizes organizations making measurable, meaningful improvements in patient safety. 

“This recognition honors innovative work within our NICU,” Samantha Crandall, PhD, RN, CPHQ, CPPS, Senior Vice President of Quality and Patient Safety at GBMC HealthCare, said, “demonstrating how improvement science can thoughtfully advance even our most trusted practices. This award belongs to the clinicians, nurses, and leaders who came together to ask hard questions, test change responsibly, and advance patient safety through collaboration and discipline.” 

Congratulations to our NICU team for this outstanding achievement and for their continued dedication to delivering safe, high-quality care to every patient and family we serve.