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VCQ NEWS
2007 Fall Quality Conference
Date: November 1, 2007
Location: Stoweflake
Keynote Speaker: Richard Norling, President and CEO, Premier, Inc.
Premier, Inc. is a 2006 National Baldrige Award Recipient
The Vermont Council for Quality is partnering with the Vermont Association for Hospitals and Health Systems to bring you this year's Fall Quality Conference featuring plenary and concurrent sessions on topics related to quality and performance improvement. Six workshops will be available throughout the day: three in the morning, and three in the afternoon. You will be able to choose which workshops work best for you.
The keynote address will be presented by Rick Norling of Premier, Inc., a healthcare strategic alliance entirely owned by not-for-profit hospitals and health system organizations. The 200 owners operate or are affiliated with more than 1,500 hospitals and thousands of non-hospital sites such as nursing homes and ambulatory centers. Owners participate to share needed services and programs aimed at improving clinical quality and cost-effectiveness.
Premier’s three business units provide the following services: group purchasing and supply chain management, insurance and risk management, and informatics and performance improvement. Premier systematically strives to achieve its “Big Hairy Audacious Goal”: Premier’s Owners will be the leading healthcare systems in their markets, and with them, Premier will be a major influence in reshaping healthcare.
More details and information will be available soon. Check back on our website at www.VermontQuality.org.
Vermont Training Program Extends Grants for New Industries
The Vermont Training Program has partnered with the Vermont Council for Quality to offer grants and scholarships for VCQ training and assessments in the following industries:
- Manufacturers
- Hospitals
- Information Technology
- Telecommunications
- Environmental
These grants and scholarships are available for VCQ classes at our site or yours. Grants are also available for organizational assessments using the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. Begin assessing your organization's performance by completing the Baldrige Express, Baldrige Explorer, or the narrative application assessment.
Call 802-655-1910 or email Vermont Council for Quality for more details!
Vermont Performance Excellence Recognition and Award Levels
The Vermont Performance Excellence Award process will help organizations assess their performance according to the Criteria for Performance Excellence and provide feedback to identify strengths and opportunities for improvement. This feedback assists leaders with the Strategic Planning process and improvement planning.
The Recognition and Award process has four levels of participation: Interest, Commitment, Achievement, and Excellence - Governor's Award for Performance Excellence. Additionally, Vermont has a U.S. Senate Productivity Award.
Recognition Levels
Level 1 – Interest Recognition - Individuals and organizations at the early stages of their journey to performance excellence receive recognition at the Interest level. These individuals and organizations are beginning to adopt and implement continuous improvement practices and principles and demonstrate a commitment to performance excellence through education and training workshops and conferences hosted throughout the year.
Level 2 – Commitment Recognition - This is the beginning level for organizations interested in adopting and applying principles of performance improvement through the self-assessment process. Organizations will receive feedback that will help improve their processes and move them forward in their journey to performance excellence.
Level 3 – Achievement Award - The Achievement Award is an advanced level of participation by an organization who participates in the assessment process and hosts a comprehensive site visit by a team of Vermont Examiners.
Applicants submit a five-page Organizational Profile and a 50-page (maximum) description of how the organization addresses all items in the 2007 Criteria for Performance Excellence or completes an organizational self-assessment using the Baldrige Explorer through the Vermont program along with an expanded organization profile and organization results.
Level 4 – Excellence Award - Governor’s Award for Performance Excellence -
The Governor’s Award for Performance Excellence is the highest level of recognition for an organization for outstanding performance, achievement, and results.
Applicants submit a five-page Organizational Profile and a 50-page (maximum) description of how the organization addresses all Items in the 2007 Criteria for Performance Excellence or completes an organizational self-assessment using the Baldrige Explorer through the Vermont Program along with an expanded organization profile and organization results.
U.S. Senate Productivity Award - The U.S. Senate Productivity Award is presented to organizations who have demonstrated the largest productivity gain over the previous year. They have completed the Self-Assessment and have had a Site Visit. Organizations applying at the Achievement or Excellence level may also apply for the U.S. Senate Productivity Award.
Getting Started
Contact Vermont Council for Quality at 802-655-1910 to learn how your organization can get started with the assessment process and receive feedback to identify your organizational strengths and opportunities for improvement.
Consultant Referral Network
Looking for a Six Sigma consultant?
An ISO auditor?
A leadership coach?
A diversity trainer?
A strategic planning expert?
Sometimes locating an organizational improvement expert is difficult. There are many out there, but unless you already know who they are – or you get lucky through word of mouth – it is oftentimes challenging to find them.
The Minnesota Council for Quality, in partnership with:
- Vermont Council for Quality
- Delaware Alliance for Excellence
- Kansas Center for Performance Excellence
- Michigan Quality Council
- Ohio Award of Excellence
- Washington State Quality Award
- Wisconsin Forward Award
are pleased to offer the Consultant
Referral Network ©. This unique service is intended to connect
experts – consultants, trainers, facilitators, coaches, and speakers
– who specialize in some aspect of organizational improvement to those
organizations desiring to hire them.
What makes this service unique?
Two things. First, it focuses on organizational improvement. There are other tools that help you locate doctors, dentists, and plumbers. But there are very few resources available to locate organizational improvement consultants. Second, the tool allows the hiring organization (the “client”) to search for consultants based on their specific needs. So rather than sorting through dozens or hundreds of possible consultants on a particular subject matter expertise, this tool will allow you to narrow your search for the consultants that meet your specific requirements – requirements such as sector/industry expertise, location, size, and years of experience.
To visit the Consultant Referral Network, please click
here.
If you are a consultant wanting to get listed on this service, please contact Vermont Council for Quality at 802-655-1910 to learn more.
VCQ Sponsors
A special thanks to our sponsors for their support!
- Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont/The Vermont Health Plan
- Rutland Regional Medical Center
- Fletcher Allen Health Care
- Northeast Delta Dental
- School of Business, University of Vermont
Become a sponsor of VCQ, and enjoy the benefits of free admissions to our conferences, acknowledgement on our website, event flyers, programs and invitations, displaying of your organization’s banner and an exhibit booth. Depending on your level of sponsorship, you will receive additional benefits.
Welcome New and Renewing VCQ Members
Renewing Members are indicated with an asterisk*
Organizational Members:
- Administrative & Facilities Services, UVM*
- Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Vermont*
- Rutland Area Visiting Nurse Association & Hospice
- Rutland Regional Medical Center*
- Vermont Office of Child Support*
- Vermont Youth Conservation Corps
- Vermont Department of Health
Individual Member: Rick Leete, Community College of Vermont*
As a VCQ member, you can take advantage of all the member benefits we offer – organizational assessments at a special member price, discounts on all of our education and training classes, advanced notice and reduced rates for all of our sponsored conferences and events, and much more!
For more information, visit our Membership section of our website.
Thank you to all for your support of the Vermont Program!
Congratulations to National Baldrige Examiners from Vermont
The Baldrige National Quality Program (BNQP) annually seeks a board of experts capable of evaluating organizations eligible for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, and willing to serve as representatives of the Award Program. In selecting the Board of Examiners' members, the Award Program seeks individuals from many different industries, companies, and organizations including for-profit, nonprofit, and public sectors in order to ensure a broad representation for category coverage.
The Board of Examiners volunteer all of their time to evaluate applications submitted to the BNQP and provide and volunteer their time and travel for site visits. Vermont Council for Quality would like to recognize the following individuals in our area for their commitment and dedication in service to BNQP.
Gary De Gasta, VA Medical Center - Examiner
Jim Hester, Vermont General Assembly - Examiner
Tim King, Tupelo Group, LLC - Senior Examiner
Anne Warner, Granite State Quality Council - Senior Examiner
In 2007, BNQP received a total of 84 Baldrige Award applications, with the Award category breakdown as follows: Manufacturing (2); Service (4); Small Business (7); Health Care (42); Education (16); and Nonprofit (13).
If you are interested in becoming a Vermont or National Examiner, please contact Vermont Council for Quality at 802-655-1910 to learn more or visit our website.
The 11 Core Values to Achieve Performance Excellence
This month's Core Value focus is on Organizational and Personal Learning
- Visionary Leadership
- Customer-Driven Excellence/Learning-Centered Education/Patient-Focused Excellence
- Organizational and Personal Learning
- Valuing Employees/Faculty/Staff and Partners
- Agility
- Focus on the Future
- Manage for Innovation
- Management by Fact
- Public Responsibility and Citizenship
- Focus on Results and Creating Value
- Systems Perspective
Valuing Employees/Faculty/Staff and Partners
(Excerpt from the 2007 Criteria for Performance Excellence book)
An organization’s success depends increasingly on the diverse backgrounds, knowledge, skills, creativity, and motivation of its workforce and partners.
Valuing the people in your workforce means committing to their satisfaction, development, and well-being. Increasingly, this involves more flexible, high-performance work practices tailored to varying workplace and home life needs.
Major challenges in the area of valuing people include:
(1) demonstrating your leaders’ commitment to the success of employees/faculty/staff;
(2) providing recognition that goes beyond the regular compensation system;
(3) offering development and progression within your organization;
(4) sharing your organization’s knowledge so your workforce can better serve your customers/students & stakeholders/patients & other customers and contribute to achieving your strategic objectives;
(5) creating an environment that encourages risk taking/creativity and innovation; and
(6) creating a supportive environment for a diverse workforce.
Organizations need to build internal and external partnerships to better accomplish overall goals. Internal partnerships might include labor-management cooperation for business. Education internal partnerships might include cooperation among senior leaders, faculty, and staff. Health care internal partnerships might include cooperation among administrators, staff, physicians, and independent practitioners, as well as labor-management cooperation. Partnerships with employees might entail workforce development, cross-training, or new work organizations/organizational structures, such as high-performance work teams. Internal partnerships also might involve creating network relationships among your departments/work units to improve flexibility, responsiveness, and knowledge sharing and to develop processes that better meet patient care and needs for health care.
External partnerships might be with customers, suppliers, and nonprofit or education organizations. Strategic partnerships or alliances are increasingly important kinds of external partnerships. Such partnerships might offer entry into new markets or a basis for new products or services. Also, partnerships might permit the blending of your organization’s core competencies or leadership capabilities with the complementary strengths and capabilities of partners to address common issues.
Education: External partnerships might be with other schools, suppliers, businesses, business associations, and community and social service organizations—all stakeholders and potential contributors. Strategic partnerships or alliances are increasingly important kinds of external partnerships.
Health Care: External partnerships might be with customers; suppliers; business associations; third-party payors; nonprofit, education, community, and social service organizations; and other health care providers. Strategic partnerships or alliances are increasingly important kinds of external partnerships. Such partnerships with other health care organizations might result in referrals or in shared facilities that are either capital intensive or require unique and scarce expertise.
Successful internal and external partnerships develop longer-term objectives, thereby creating a basis for mutual investments and respect. Partners should address the key requirements for success, means for regular communication, approaches to evaluating progress, and means for adapting to changing conditions. In some cases, joint education and training could offer a cost-effective method for workforce development.
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NATIONAL NEWS
2007 Regional Conferences - Register Now!
September 20, 2007
Cleveland Airport Marriott - Cleveland, OH
(Ohio Quest for Success 2007 Conference on September 19)
October 5, 2007
Hilton Seattle Airport Hotel - Seattle, WA
(Pre-Conference Workshop on October 4)
Join us for a day of dynamic learning and networking with representatives of the 2006 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipients:
- Premier Inc. – a healthcare strategic alliance entirely owned by not-for-profit hospitals and health System organizations; owners share needed services and programs aimed at improving clinical quality and cost-effectiveness
- MESA Products, Inc. – a small, privately held business that designs, manufactures, and installs cathodic protection systems which control the corrosion of metal surfaces; this electrochemical corrosion control is applied to underground pipelines and submerged tanks
- North Mississippi Medical Center – the largest rural hospital in the United States and Mississippi’s largest community-owned hospital; provides a wide array of inpatient, outpatient, and emergency services
Spend a day learning about their best practices and performance strategies in all seven Baldrige Criteria Categories: Leadership; Strategic Planning; Customer/ Student/ Patient/ Stakeholder Focus; Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge Management; Workforce Focus; Process Management; and Results
Also hear from former Award recipients on Criteria categories and special topics!
The conferences will feature a combination of plenary, concurrent, and town hall presentations that provide a dynamic and interactive environment where you can maximize your learning and networking.
Who Should Attend: CEOs, senior managers, education and health care leaders and professionals, directors of staff functions, heads of operating units, and quality/performance improvement practitioners.Conference Schedules: Each conference is scheduled for 8:00 am-5:00 pm with a continental breakfast available from 7:00 am-8:00 am.
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