WorkingWell Well on Journey to Baldrige Quality Award

WorkingWell, Franciscan Alliance’s Northern Indiana Region network of occupational health care providers, recently received a High Level Bronze-Indiana State Malcolm Baldrige Award, which is a step toward qualifying to achieve the highly coveted Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

The Bronze award recently was announced by The Partnership for Excellence, the Baldrige-based awards program for Indiana, Ohio and West Virginia. The group partners with organizations using the internationally based Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence.

Applicants are evaluated by an independent board of examiners in areas of work force focus, operations focus, leadership, strategic planning, customer focus, measurement, analysis and knowledge management, and results.

Tim Ross, WorkingWell regional administrative director, said the honor resulted from a team effort.

I was humbled by how Franciscan Alliance Northern Indiana Region leaders pulled together to support WorkingWell staff to achieve this prestige award. This was a team effort by all.

He added, “The journey started with WorkingWell’s National Association of Healthcare Providers certification, which laid the foundation to achieve our International Organization for Standardization certification for all five WorkingWell clinics. The Baldrige award is the latest in achievements that WorkingWell has accomplished in our quest for high quality standards.

Ross said the next step in the journey for the ultimate Baldrige award will be earning the tri-state-level honor, which is the next goal.

We will utilize Baldrige criteria to continuously improve quality objectives to become the best occupational health clinics.

Ross also credited Moulay Alaoui, regional business transformation specialist, for providing information that matched WorkingWell processes to Baldrige criteria.

WorkingWell clinics are located in Crown Point, Hammond, Michigan City, Munster and Valparaiso.

About the award

The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recognizes U.S. organizations in the business, health care, education, and nonprofit sectors for performance excellence. The Baldrige Award is the only formal recognition of the performance excellence of both public and private U.S. organizations given by the U.S. president. It is administered by the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, which is based at and managed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Up to 18 awards may be given annually across six eligibility categories -- manufacturing, service, small business, education, health care, and nonprofit. As of 2010, 91 organizations had received the award.

The Baldrige National Quality Program and the associated award were established by the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Improvement Act of 1987. The program and award were named for Malcolm Baldrige, who served as United States Secretary of Commerce during the Reagan administration, from 1981 until Baldrige’s 1987 death in a rodeo accident.