Mid-America Transplant Services (MTS) was recently named as one of four recipients of the 2015 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation’s highest Presidential honor for performance excellence. The award will be formally presented at a ceremony in April 2016.
Among the highlights cited in the award announcement, MTS was noted for innovations such as building the first stand-alone organ recovery facility in the United States, thus substantially reducing the cost per donor for in-house recovery. It was also noted for having staff members in residence at key donor hospitals in its service area, thus having a very low rate of missed organ referrals; for having a high employee retention rate; and for having a very low rate of customer complaints per donation.
“As the first OPO to be recognized as a Baldrige recipient, we hope to leverage this national recognition to bring greater awareness to organ and tissue donation across the country, so that we can save more lives together,” said Dean Kappel, MTS’ president and CEO. “We also hope to share our best practices with our fellow OPOs as they work to incorporate the Baldrige model in their own organizations.”
The Baldrige Performance Excellence Program raises awareness about the importance of performance excellence through organizational assessments, training and education, and sharing the best practices of national role models. In addition to the national award, there are more than 30 independent Baldrige-based state and regional award programs.
Donor Alliance recently received the Peak Performance Award from Rocky Mountain Performance Excellence (RMPEx), one of the regional chapters of the Baldrige Performance Excellence program. The Peak Performance Award is the highest level the organization confers, and Donor Alliance is one of only six organizations to receive the designation since RMPEx’s founding in 2001. Donor Alliance will now be eligible to apply for the national Baldrige award in the future. “We are thrilled to accept this award and plan to continue striving for operational and organizational success, which is crucial to the lifesaving work that we do,” said Sue Dunn, Donor Alliance’s president and CEO.
