Consider a scenario where your organization, a 200 bed acute care facility in a community of less than 300,000 people, has taken the first steps in applying for the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award for health care. It has gone through much of the self-assessment process but the hospital’s board members are split on whether to continue to commit resources to the effort. One board member feels strongly that the hospital not pursue the Baldrige Award and commit its resources elsewhere. Another board member believes the self-assessment should be completed to determine if the hospital reaps any short run benefits from the process. A third board member thinks the hospital should submit an application to see what can be learned from an examiner’s visit. The hospital is the sole provider for the community; reports quality measures to CMS; and has been slow to adopt any sophisticated health information technology.
Ms. Calhoun has been responsible for overseeing the hospital’s Baldrige effort up to this point. She has asked you, as a professional colleague outside her institution, for your advice about her response to Board members and administrators whose three points of view are noted in the scenario. Prepare a short memo answering the following questions:
- What information could Ms. Calhoun use in responding to at least two points made by her colleagues (i.e., Baldrige related information related to at least two of the Board’s concerns)?
- What further information might Ms. Calhoun give YOU that could help you advise her? In other words, what questions do you want to ask her about her attitude towards pursuing the Baldrige award?
- Given the information provided, for each of the three options Ms. Calhoun has for making her recommendation (withdrawing from Baldrige, pursuing a self-assessment, pursuing an examiner’s visit), identify two positive features and two negative features of the option in terms of its potential impact on the organization (i.e., what is potentially good about the option and what is potentially bad about the option).
- Finally, based on what you know at the moment, offer your opinion about what her next step should be. You may offer disclaimers in this latter advice since more information might change your mind.
Though you are writing a somewhat informal document to a colleague, be sure to use a professional style. Your memo should be no more than 500 words in length.
You will probably wish to consult outside sources like the Baldrige site to examine other Baldrige winners and to see the criteria in more detail. Be sure to look at the newest set of criteria posted there: http://www.nist.gov/baldrige/.
Learning Materials
Textbook Reading
Read the following from the Baldrige website:
- Baldrige Performance Excellence Program. Baldrige criteria commentary (health care). Retrieved from https://www.nist.gov/baldrige/baldrige-criteria-commentary-health-care
This link describes the Baldrige Criteria for its award in health care. It begins with an organizational profile and proceeds through seven criteria items to be evaluated.