Which organizations have received the award?

• 2003—Medrad, Inc., Boeing Aerospace Support, Caterpillar Financial Services Corp., Stoner Inc., Community Consolidated School District 15, Baptist Hospital, Inc., and Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City
• 2002—Motorola Inc. Commercial, Government and Industrial Solutions Sector, Branch Smith Printing Division, and SSM Health Care
• 2001—Clarke American Checks, Incorporated, Pal’s Sudden Service, Chugach School District, Pearl River School District, and University of Wisconsin-Stout
• 2000—Dana Corp.-Spicer Driveshaft Division, KARLEE Company, Inc., Operations Management International, Inc., and Los Alamos National Bank
• 1999—STMicroelectronics, Inc.-Region Americas, BI, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co., L.L.C., and Sunny Fresh Foods
• 1998—Boeing Airlift and Tanker Programs, Solar Turbines Inc., and Texas Nameplate Co., Inc.
• 1997—3M Dental Products Division, Solectron Corp., Merrill Lynch Credit Corp., and Xerox Business Services
• 1996—ADAC Laboratories, Dana Commercial Credit Corp., Custom Research Inc., and Trident Precision Manufacturing Inc.
• 1995—Armstrong World Industries Building Products Operation and Corning Telecommunications Products Division
• 1994—AT&T Consumer Communications Services, GTE Directories Corp., and Wainwright Industries Inc.
• 1993—Eastman Chemical Co. and Ames Rubber Corp.
• 1992—AT&T Network Systems Group/ Transmission Systems Business Unit, Texas Instruments Inc. Defense Systems & Electronics Group, AT&T Universal Card Services, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co., and Granite Rock Co.
• 1991—Solectron Corp., Zytec Corp., and Marlow Industries
• 1990—Cadillac Motor Car Division, IBM Rochester, Federal Express Corp., and Wallace Co. Inc.
• 1989—Milliken & Co. and Xerox Corp. Business Products and Systems
• 1988—Motorola Inc., Commercial Nuclear Fuel Division of Westinghouse Electric Corp., and Globe Metallurgical Inc.

When were the education and health care categories established? Both categories were introduced in 1999. Since then, a total of 66 applications have been submitted in the education category and 61 in the health care category.

Any for-profit or not-for-profit public or private organization that provides educational or health care services in the United States or its territories is eligible to apply for the award. That includes elementary and secondary schools and school districts; colleges, universities, and university systems; schools or colleges within a university; professional schools; community colleges; technical schools; and charter schools. In health care, it includes hospitals, HMOs, long-term-care facilities, health care practitioner offices, home health agencies, health insurance companies, or medical/dental laboratories.

As in the other three categories, applicants must show achievements and improvements in seven areas: leadership; strategic planning; customer and market focus (for education: student, stakeholder, and market focus; for health care: focus on patients, other customers, and markets); information and analysis; human resource focus (for education: faculty and staff focus; for health care: staff focus); process management; and business results (for both education and health care: organizational performance results).

Many education and health care organizations are using the Baldrige criteria to good effect. For example:

• The New Jersey Department of Education permits school systems to use the New Jersey Quality Achievement Award criteria—based on the Baldrige Award criteria—as an alternative to its state assessment criteria. Other states are considering a similar approach.

• The National Alliance of Business and the American Productivity and Quality Center have developed the Baldrige In Education Initiative, a national program to improve the management systems of education organizations and educational outcomes.

• In April 2000, the National Education Goals Panel (NEGP) held a nationwide teleconference, “Creating a Framework for High Achieving Schools,” to focus on the Baldrige criteria in education. In the foreword to a report issued in conjunction with the teleconference, then-Governor Tommy G. Thompson of Wisconsin and 2000 chair for the NEGP, said the Baldrige criteria for education “can provide educators with a framework and strategies for improving their schools and helping all children to reach high standards.”

• At the teleconference, Bob Chase, president of the National Education Association (NEA), said, “The Baldrige process and what I call ‘new unionism’ are a quality match. Most crucially, NEA’s new unionism and the Baldrige process share the same bottom line, improving student achievement.”

• Dr. Michael Wood, CEO, Mayo Foundation and Clinic, hosted a Baldrige Health Care Summit on June 29, 2000, involving 10 leading health care institutions in the United States.

• Special sessions on Baldrige in health care were held at the Institute for Health Care Improvement conferences in December 1999 and December 2000.

• Motorola University hosted 120 health care leaders for a one-week course on Baldrige and Quality Improvement in Health Care in February 2001.

• Richard Norling, CEO, Premier Inc., a leading distributor of health care supplies, is serving as president of the private-sector Baldrige Foundation during 2001.

Why are categories in education and health care needed? Since its creation in 1987, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award has played an important role in helping thousands of U.S. companies improve not only their products and services, their customers’ satisfaction, and their bottom line, but also their overall performance.

Now, organizations in other sectors vital to the U.S. economy—education and health care—are recognizing that the Baldrige Award’s tough performance excellence standards can help stimulate their improvement efforts as well. Just as it has for U.S. businesses, a Baldrige Award program can help these organizations improve performance and foster communication, sharing of “best practices,” and partnerships among schools, health care organizations, and businesses.

How are recipients selected? Organizations that are headquartered in the United States may apply for the award. Applications for the award are evaluated by an independent Board of Examiners composed of primarily private-sector experts in quality and business. Examiners look for achievements and improvements in all seven categories. Organizations that pass an initial screening are visited by teams of examiners to verify information in the application and to clarify questions that come up during the review. Each applicant receives a written summary of strengths and areas for improvement in each area addressed by the criteria.