The Grundy County Health Department has earned Interest Level Recognition in the annual Excellence in Tennessee recognition program administered by the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence (TNCPE). TNCPE is the only state-wide quality program and is patterned on the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, the national standard for recognizing organizational excellence. The Grundy County Health Department accepted the award at the 21st annual Excellence in Tennessee Awards Banquet on February 19.
According to Glenn Czarnecki, Regional Director for the Southeast Region of the Tennessee Department of Health, “In Grundy County we suspected that we had many of the pieces already in place to be successful in performance excellence. The Baldrige criteria help us pull all those pieces together to create that picture of excellence and help us clearly see where more work is needed.”
The Grundy County Health Department is a local county health department providing public health services.
Through an annual evaluation and assessment process, TNCPE recognizes high-performance organizations that exhibit continuous improvement and best practice processes. This year, TNCPE has named 39 organizations as 2013 Award winners. They represent outstanding achievement in the following industry sectors: health care, manufacturing, service, education, government and nonprofit.
“Groups trying to improve understand that being successful takes effort from each employee and a shared commitment to quality and achievement, and organizations like Grundy County Health Department play a critical role in making Tennessee a better place to live, work and raise a family,” said Governor Bill Haslam.
Organizations like Grundy County Health Department apply to the TNCPE program at one of four levels. As the levels increase, so does the depth and complexity of the application, which is based on the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. Since the program was founded in 1993, only 22 organizations have attained the excellence designation. Mountain States Health Alliance will receive the Excellence Award this year; six organizations will be honored with the Achievement Award; 18 organizations will receive a Commitment Award; and 14 will receive Interest Recognition.
“This program helps organizations look at the big picture. But it’s not easy—if it were, every organization in the state would be participating,” said TNCPE President Katie Rawls. “Organizations like Grundy County Health Department are truly passionate about performance excellence and have chosen TNCPE and the Baldrige framework to help them become the best-run organization they can be.”