TDH Moving Forward with Baldridge Performance Excellence Effort

NASHVILLE – Throughout the Tennessee Department of Health, staff members and county health departments continue to progress in the department’s pursuit of continuous improvement and excellence. TDH uses the nationally-recognized Baldrige excellence framework as a benchmark and guide in its work.

To date, 51 TDH staff members have been certified as Baldrige examiners, with  23 now in the active corps of examiners; 29 county health departments or divisions have achieved performance level ratings; and the department overall is now working to achieve an advanced level of Baldrige-recognized improvement. The department has achieved an overall Level II recognition.

The Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence is a framework used by organizations across multiple industries to improve their performance and achieve sustainable results. The Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence, established as a statewide, non-profit public-private partnership in 1993, works with businesses and organizations to help them achieve Baldrige certifications.

TDH Commissioner John J. Dreyzehner, MD, MPH, FACOEM, has served on the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence, TNCPE, since 2011. In June of 2015 he completed the coursework to be on the Board of Examiners. The Board of Examiners is comprised of experts from all sectors of the regional economy including health care, service, nonprofit, manufacturing, education and government. Each member receives extensive training in the Baldrige Excellence Framework™; all members take the skills and expertise developed during training and the assessment process back to their own jobs, benefiting and improving their own organizations and helping make Tennessee a better place to live and work.

“The TNCPE has been exceptionally helpful in our continuing journey toward organizational excellence and results throughout our department,” Dreyzehner said. “Identifying and implementing improvements are vital to the evolving scope of our work, as they would be in any private-sector enterprise, and TNCPE examiners have allowed us to have independent eyes and brains contributing to positive changes. I whole-heartedly encourage other businesses and organizations to consider pursuing the Baldrige Excellence Framework as part of strategic efforts to be better at what they do.”

More than 1,300 organizations have participated in and benefited from the TNCPE program. For more information, visit www.TNCPE.org.