Marietta-based Wellstar Health System, one of Georgia’s largest and most integrated healthcare systems, announced that Wellstar Paulding Hospital has been awarded the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.
The award is the nation’s highest level of recognition for performance excellence.
Wellstar Paulding Hospital is the first healthcare organization in the state of Georgia to receive this award. The award is the nation’s only presidential award for performance excellence, recognizing U.S. organizations and businesses that have shown an unceasing drive for innovative solutions to complex challenges, visionary leadership and operational excellence.
Named after Malcolm Baldrige, the 26th Secretary of Commerce, the Baldrige Award was established by Congress in 1987 to enhance the competitiveness and performance of U.S. businesses. Since the first group was recognized in 1988, 134 national-level awards have been presented to 124 organizations. The awards are handed out annually by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology and are considered the most prestigious U.S. recognition of quality performance.
Previously, Wellstar Paulding Hospital received the 2019 Oglethorpe Award — Georgia’s highest level of recognition for organizational performance excellence and a milestone on the national Baldrige Award journey.
NIST manages the Baldrige Award in cooperation with the private sector. An independent panel of judges reviewed the evaluations performed by the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program’s all-volunteer Board of Examiners and recommended this year’s award recipients from a field of 20 applicants.
For more information, visit wellstar.org.
