May 30, 2007 BRYAN, TEXAS - The Quality Texas Foundation, the administrator of Texas' premier annual performance excellence award, announced that St. Joseph Health System has been selected as a recipient of the 2007 Texas Award for Performance Excellence (TAPE). SJHS is one of three state-wide award recipients for 2007 and is the first organization in the Brazos Valley to receive the Award since its inception in 1993. Patterned after the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award criteria and process, the Texas Award for Performance Excellence is an annual recognition of Texas organizations that have achieved performance excellence and applied outstanding quality principles in their day-to-day operations. The award is presented to organizations that serve as role models for quality, customer satisfaction, and performance excellence in the state of Texas. St. Joseph is only the third health care organization to receive the Texas Award for Performance Excellence. St. Joseph Health System joined the consulting firm Freese and Nichols, Inc. of Fort Worth and Northwest Vista College, a community College in San Antonio, as 2007 award recipients. Texas Quality Foundation Board of Directors Chairman David Branch stated, "I am pleased to announce the selection of Freese and Nichols, Inc., Northwest Vista College, and St. Joseph Health System as recipients of the Texas Award for Performance Excellence. These organizations have accomplished this level of success and established new standards for excellence through their diligent efforts in the pursuit of performance excellence." The 2007 awards will be presented during the Texas award ceremony scheduled for the evening of June 25 at the Horseshoe Bay Resort in Horseshoe Bay, Texas. The Texas Quest for Excellence Conference will be held the following day, June 26, and will feature presentations from St. Joseph Health System teams as well as former TAPE and Malcolm Baldrige national award recipients. "What a great honor this is for our entire team to be recognized for the work they have done," said Jack Buckley, SJHS President and CEO. "When you become committed to the idea that you can always get better it becomes inspiring and contagious." Buckley said the award is especially meaningful during the anniversary year celebrating the Sister’s 70 years of operating St. Joseph as a community hospital. "The Sisters founded this ministry on the principal of providing quality care to everyone. We still have plenty of work to do on our journey to excellence, but this award is a great accomplishment for our entire team - the Sisters of St. Francis, staff, physicians, governance, volunteers, and friends who support our work caring for people." Each year performance-oriented Texas companies submit a detailed application to the Texas Quality Foundation describing the performance work accomplished in seven key categories, including leadership, strategic planning, focus on customers, measurement & analysis, staff focus, process management, and results. A team of independent examiners reviews each application. Based on this review the Quality Texas panel of judges selects a small number of organizations to receive a site survey. At the beginning of April St. Joseph Health System received a 3-day site visit from 5 TAPE examiners, who traveled throughout the health system’s facilities. Based on results of that site survey, SJSH received the award. "Three years ago our team made the commitment to embrace the Baldrige management framework for performance improvement as a way of becoming an excellent organization," said Mark Montgomery, M.D., Vice President of Quality and Medical Affairs for the Health System. "This is an evolving process that takes time and energy. A lot of people, in fact our entire staff, have been working on improving our organization." Montgomery said improvements have come in many areas, including improved clinical outcomes, reduced infection rates, improved communications, and a greater focus on customers. St. Joseph Health System, a health ministry of the Sisters of St. Francis of Sylvania, Ohio, is an integrated healthcare system consisting of acute care and long term care facilities, critical access hospitals and rural health clinics in 15 locations within a seven county primary service area. With a staff of more than 2,300 St. Joseph Health System was recognized by the TAPE examiners for best practices in areas of strategic planning, process improvement, staff retention, new employee training, customer focus and organizational culture. TAPE examiners identified that the organization is engaged in the communities that it serves and offers programs to assist patient groups and their families. It participates in charitable programs and disaster preparedness with other organizations within its service community and assists in times of disaster. The Quality Texas Foundation, a non-profit Texas corporation, administers the Texas Award for Performance Excellence. The Foundation, with administrative offices located in Dallas, coordinates more than 300 volunteers from all areas of industry, government, education, non-profit and health care who work together to assess and promote quality and performance excellence throughout the state.
About the Quality Texas Foundation: The Quality Texas Foundation is a nonprofit Texas corporation that administers the Texas Award for Performance Excellence. The Foundation, with administrative offices in Dallas, coordinates more than 300 volunteers from all areas of industry, government, education and health care who work together to encourage and promote quality and performance excellence throughout the state. For more information about the Texas Award for Performance Excellence, becoming a Quality Texas Examiner, or to register for the upcoming events, visit our website at http://www.texas-quality.org or call the Quality Texas Foundation office at (214) 565-8550.
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