In 2004, SSM Health Care - St. Louis was awarded the 2004 Missouri Team Quality Award (MTQA) from the Excellence in Missouri Foundation for processes used to implement a point-of-service collection program in hospital emergency rooms. The award, which was presented to SSM Health Care at an awards banquet Nov. 18 in Osage Beach (Lake of the Ozarks), went to a team of about 20 people from each of SSM’s seven hospitals and its corporate office. The team won for its coordination and implementation of a process of collecting co-payments from patients at the time that medical care is provided. In 2003, SSMHC was averaging a 25 percent collection rate in its hospital ERs – half of the national average. After program implementation, SSM’s collection rate jumped above 40 percent, resulting in $1.1 million in additional revenue.

Also in 2004, SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital was awarded the Missouri Quality Award. 

The Excellence in Missouri Foundation based the awards on The Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. Those Criteria provide a systems perspective for understanding performance management. They reflect validated, leading-edge management practices against which an organization can measure itself. With their acceptance nationally and internationally as the model for performance excellence, the Criteria represent a common language for communication among organizations for sharing best practices. The Criteria are also the basis for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award process.