Now Available: 2013-2014 Health Care Criteria and Education Criteria Publications

Now available for purchase on the Baldrige Web site: the 2013–2014 Health Care Criteria for Performance Excellence and the 2013–2014 Education Criteria for Performance Excellence. These publications, along with the business/nonprofit version of the Criteria (available since December), are designed to help U.S. organizations of every sector continually improve and reach world-class levels of performance. Health care and education organizations can also access valuable free Criteria-related content online. This free content includes the complete Organizational Profile, a detailed Item Commentary, and a sample item from each Criteria publication.

According to a 2013 survey of CEO members of the American College of Health Care Executives (ACHE) and senior, provider-based members of the Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development (SHSMD), 65% of hospitals are likely to "use the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence as a systematic framework for performance improvement or as an internal assessment tool" by 2018 (Health Administration Press, Futurescan 2013 (PDF) Society for Healthcare Strategy & Market Development of the American Hospital Association, 2013). Similarly, the survey found that 41% are likely to submit an application for the Baldrige Award or a state-level Baldrige-based award by 2018.

Also, in recent Baldrige-in-health-care news, in 2012, for the second time in two years, Truven Health Analytics, a major health care survey research and data analysis organization, linked hospitals that adopt and use the Baldrige Criteria to successful operations, management practices, and overall performance. The affirmation of the Baldrige impact on health care re-emphasized the results of an October 2011 study, also by Truven Health Analytics (then known as the health care business of Thomson Reuters), that found hospitals that had won the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award or been considered for a Baldrige Award site visit outperformed other hospitals in nearly every metric used to determine the 100 Top Hospitals.

Since 1999, when health care and education organizations became eligible to apply for the Baldrige Award, such organizations have been using the Health Care Criteria and the Education Criteria, respectively, to improve their performance and excel. Here are some examples of results such Criteria users have achieved:

• An acute-care medical facility reduced patient deaths by 24% over three years on a measure known as the risk-adjusted mortality rate (overall mortality divided by expected mortality where 1.0 is the standard), a performance level that exceeded the top-decile level in the hospital's six-county region as measured by Thomson Reuters. The same hospital achieved a 24% increase in its net operating margin over two years, exceeding that of "AA"-rated hospitals and representing top-decile performance in the industry.
  
• A large, ethnically diverse K-12th-grade public school system reported that more than 66% of its high school graduates (Class of 2010) took at least one Advanced Placement (AP) course and exam, compared with 28.3% nationally and 43.4% in other districts in the state; 50% of those students earned scores of "3" or higher, compared to 16.9% nationally and 26.4% statewide. Over the decade preceding the district's Baldrige Award, the number of AP exams taken by its high school students more than tripled, and the number of AP exams on which they scored "3" or higher more than doubled.
  

How can the 2013–2014 Health Care Criteria or Education Criteria benefit your organization? The Criteria empower you to reach your goals, improve results, and become more competitive by aligning your plans, processes, decisions, people, actions, and results. Because of the systems perspective of the Criteria, you gain a holistic assessment of where your organization is and where it needs to be.

As with previous revisions, the 2013–2014 Criteria (business/nonprofit, health care, and education versions alike) have been refined and updated based on what the Baldrige Program refers to as the "leading edge of validated management practices." The latest revision gives special attention to the following concepts:

• Innovation management, intelligent risk, and strategic opportunities
• Social media
• Operational effectiveness
• Work systems as a strategic concept

Purchase your copy of the 2013–2014 Health Care and/or Education Criteria for Performance Excellence now! For more information on any of the Criteria publications, contact the Baldrige Program at 301-975-2036 or baldrige@nist.gov.