Baldrige FAQs: Health Care and Education

How does Baldrige compare to accreditation by organizations (e.g., the Joint Commission, National Committee for Quality Assurance, and North Central Association of Colleges and Schools)? What is the value of Baldrige for a health care or education organization?

Baldrige is focused on performance excellence and setting stretch standards. Accreditation is focused on setting the base standards that all organizations must meet to be considered acceptable providers of health care or education services. All organizations must be accredited; only role-model organizations will achieve Baldrige recognition. Nevertheless, a Baldrige self-assessment will help all organizations proceed beyond accreditation to setting excellence goals. Incidentally, some accreditation organizations (e.g., the Joint Commission and the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs) are incorporating elements of the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence into their assessments.

Why should education or health care be different from service industries?  

Results from the 1995 Baldrige pilot program indicated that education and health care organizations are very similar to other service organizations. In fact, for-profit health care and education organizations were eligible to apply for the Baldrige Award in the service category before 1999 and continue to be eligible in that category. The purpose of separate Baldrige Criteria is to facilitate understanding of the Baldrige framework in a health care or education setting. The sector-specific Baldrige Criteria are neither less rigorous nor more challenging, but the language has been adapted to fit organizations in these sectors.

How many education and health care Baldrige Award recipients are there?

As of the end of 2010, there were 9 education and 12 health care Baldrige Award recipients.