and education were available beginning in 1999 and the first
healthcare award was made in 2002. By the conclusion of the
2005 application cycle, a total of 116 healthcare organisations
had submitted applications and five healthcare organisations
had received the prestigious award, recognising their commitment
to the values and concepts espoused by the programme.5
The Baldrige criteria have been successfully used by the Veterans
Health Administration as a framework for the its Kizer Quality
Achievement Recognition Grant. Similarly, 37 states in the USA
offer quality awards based on Baldrige criteria.5
Table 1 summarises the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria for
Performance Excellence and the specific items for healthcare
that are based on those criteria. Similar to the criteria designed
specifically for business and education, the healthcare criteria
reflect some of the unique issues facing healthcare organisations.
Figure 1 illustrates the relationship of the seven
healthcare criteria, which are built on the following set of
inter-related core values and concepts:
N Visionary leadership
N Patient-focused excellence
N Organisational and personal learning
N Valuing staff and partners
N Agility
N Focus on the future
N Managing for innovation
N Management by fact
N Social responsibility and community health
N Focus on results and creating value
N Systems perspective