(ASQ: Milwaukee) -- The American Society for Quality is offering a three-part prerecorded webinar series that spotlights one health care organizations’ use of the Malcolm Baldrige Performance Excellence Criteria to drive organizational transformation. The webinar series complements the recently published book Journey to Excellence: How Baldrige Health Care Leaders Succeed, and is accessible in ASQ’s Knowledge Center at www.asq.org/knowledge-center/baldrige/index.html.

The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award is the nation’s highest honor for quality and performance excellence in the categories of health care, manufacturing, service, small business, education, and nonprofit organizations.

These three prerecorded webinars, each lasting at least one hour, showcase how Baldrige helps organizations address the challenges facing health care today. In addition, the content helps to identify the recognizable stages and common pitfalls in the journey to excellence using the Baldrige framework. Leaders from 2008 Baldrige Award-winning Poudre Valley Health System, a regional network of health care services for the people of northern Colorado, southern Wyoming and western Nebraska, share their perspectives and learning about the Baldrige process.

Each webinar is moderated by Journey to Excellence authors Kate Goonan, M.D., executive director, MGH Center for Performance Excellence; and Joe Muzikowski, senior consultant, MGH Center for Performance Excellence.

• Webinar Series—Part 1:  Features Rulon Stacey, president and CEO, Poudre Valley Health System, who discusses the leadership role in the selection and implementation of the Baldrige improvement model.
• Webinar Series—Part 2: Features Priscilla Nuwash, director, Process Improvement, Poudre Valley Health System, in a discussion on how they communicated the vision of Baldrige within the organization and created a framework for improvement and excellence.
• Webinar Series—Part 3: Features William Neff, M.D., chief medical officer, Poudre Valley Health System, who explains how they engaged their physicians as partners in the process, resulting in improved teamwork, reduced turnover and ultimately better patient care.

"Journey to Excellence: How Baldrige Health Care Leaders Succeed" is based on several years’ study of the nine Baldrige Award winners from health care. It describes how these organizations approached their Baldrige journey and what other health care leaders should do to reap similar benefits. It is published by ASQ and is available by visiting The ASQ Store.