Awards recognizing quality in health care.

A variety of awards have been recognizing business, public, and educational sectors for their quality efforts. As of 1995, 10 states include the health care sector in their programs. The national Malcolm Baldrige Award now accepts volunteer applications from the health care sector as a prelude to their inclusion in 1996 in the regular award program. An evaluation model is common to the several award programs that describes how quality is enabled, the systems that make it work, and the desired goals in seven categories. Each category has criteria that allow the flexibility desired by individual programs. The important features are the self-examination required of the organization in preparing the application and the feedback reports to all applicants that note the strengths of applicant and the areas for improvement by the applicant. Health care organizations are encouraged to participate in these award programs as part of their individual improvements efforts.