Local Baldrige networks offer more than awards
Local Baldrige networks offer more than awards
What could the Mack Truck factory and the Pennsylvania Department of Transporta tion have in common with the Easton (PA) Hospital? "The Baldrige criteria fit us all," insists Sharon Donahue Hellwig, EdD, RN, director of quality improvement at Easton.
Where the hospital might assess improvements in cycle time between receiving a medication order and administering it to the patient, the factory and the transportation departments are every bit as concerned about cycle times on order fulfillment. "We learn from each other at the Baldrige meetings," she explains. The interactions cross-pollinate ideas, enriching all the participating industries. "We get involved with companies using similar criteria, and we can see how well we're doing comparatively," she says.
[Besides,]" Hellwig notes, "health care really is a supplier to these major organizations. If we can learn how to improve our product, we become much more valuable as a supplier." However, she cautions that the customer connections and public relations are valuable fallouts of regional involvement but not the primary purpose. The real rewards, she says, are "the new skills you learn as an organization and the ability to remain competitive by learning about your customers' needs."
Health care executives participating in state and regional Baldrige application activities describe the criteria as flexible quality improvement tools. One of them, Mike Rudolf, MBA, director of improvement services at VHA-East Coast in Cranbury, NJ, says pieces of the process may be applied to billing or purchasing as well as patient care. Quality Valley USA's regional Baldrige program gives awards to teams as well as organizations. The Schnecksville, PA-based program doesn't separate health care applicants from the rest. That, he notes, adds to the excitement and meaning of the awards. "We've had winners as diverse as a family bakery with 17 employees and a health care system with 5,000 employees."
Five Quality Valley USA 1997 team awards went to Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, PA. Winning teams are interdisciplinary units representing trauma care, cardiac surgery, perinatal care, specialty beds, and homecare for patients on intravenous therapies. Notes Sue Lawrence, MS, CPHQ, the hospital's administrator of clinical resource management, "We're identifying teams to apply for the 1998 team awards. The energy from last year's award has caught on with the whole hospital. Once they get the fever, the teams really want to apply."
(Editor's note: In coming issues, we'll feature Baldrige winners' projects. Meanwhile, rate your own team against the criteria outlined in "How do your teams rate on Baldrige criteria?" below.)
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