The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award is presented annually by the President of the United States to organizations that demonstrate quality and performance excellence. The award may be given annually in up to six categories, including manufacturing, services, small business, education, health care and non-profit.

In 2013, the Pewaukee School District in Wisconsin, Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano in Texas, and the Sutter Davis Hospital in California earned the Baldrige Award.

The Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence, on which the award is based, improves organizational performance and offers organizations an integrated approach to key management areas, like leadership, customer focus, operations focus, results and more.

According to a December 2011 study, a conservative estimated benefit-to-cost ratio for organizations that employ the Baldrige Criteria was 820 to 1. A study of the organizations that have earned two Baldrige Awards shows their median growth in revenue was 93 percent in the years between their awards and their job growth was 2½ percent higher than the same industry.

ASQ, the leading authority on quality in all fields, organizations and industries, has been the sole administrator of the award since the award’s inception in 1988. The Baldrige Award is named after the late Secretary of Commerce Malcolm Baldrige, a proponent of quality management. The program is overseen by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a non-regulatory agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

More than 1,500 U.S. organizations have applied for the Baldrige Award. The program also has served as a model for nearly 100 excellence programs worldwide.
The latest contract for the administration of the Baldrige Award began in October and lasts one year.

For more information about the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, visit asq.org/learn-about-quality/malcolm-baldrige-award/overview/overview.html