U.S. Commerce Secretary John Bryson today named four organizations—three health care operations and one nonprofit business—as recipients of the 2011 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation’s highest Presidential honor for performance excellence through innovation, improvement and visionary leadership. This marks the first year that three health care organizations have been selected at one time.

The 2011 Baldrige Award recipients—listed with their category—are:

NSF International, a global independent public-health organization with 66 years of experience, including 25 years of pharmaceutical expertise through its NSF Health Sciences Division, is launching NSF Reference Standards, which will produce reference standards that are traceable to official U.S. and European pharmacopeial standards. Pharmaceutical manufacturers worldwide use reference standards as comparative standards to demonstrate the identity, purity, quality, and strength of their pharmaceutical products and ingredients.

Any way you slice it, the Orlando World Center Marriott Resort is one big place. Total number of rooms? More than 2,000. Massive swimming pool? How about two of the biggest ones you’ve ever seen? Fine dining and refreshments? Take your choice of two terrific steakhouses (one American, one Japanese), classic Italian, a cafe, a sports bar, and a food court. The ballrooms are palatial.

Welcome to Quality Digest Daily 2.0! This new format represents a significant re-imaging of our flagship brand (the industry’s only daily newsletter), which we first launched nearly two years ago. I hope you notice that we’ve added more video content to the newsletter as well as greater editorial interactivity. There are new departments as well, so take your time and explore the new Quality Digest Daily (QDD) at length.