Contact: Jan Kosko, janice.kosko@nist.gov 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                  G 97-02
Feb. 7, 1997

Contact: Jan Kosko                      FY 1998 BUDGET PROPOSES
         (301) 975-2767                 FUNDING TO ESTABLISH
         janice.kosko@nist.gov          EDUCATION, HEALTH CARE                                                     QUALITY AWARDS

     Education and health care organizations would have their own award
categories as part of President Clinton's fiscal year 1998 budget
proposal for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, managed by the
Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology.
The proposed budget includes $2.3 million for the awards.

     At a ceremony last December for the 1996 Baldrige Award business
winners, the President said, "I'm very pleased that there will be new
winners in the categories of non-profit health care and education
organizations. I can tell you that if you look at the percentage of our
economy and more important, the stake in our quality of life and our
future in health care and education, this is coming not a moment too
soon."

     Commerce Secretary William Daley said, "These new awards will be a
wonderful opportunity to boost performance and services and to cut costs
across the board--for consumers and companies, as well as at the
government level."

     The private Foundation for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality
Award decided in December that it will raise an endowment to help
establish an award program for these two sectors, provided federal
funding also is available for support. The endowment will help fund
activities such as printing and distributing criteria and training
private-sector examiners who review applications. In 1988, the
foundation raised $10.4 million to endow the current Baldrige Award open
to for-profit businesses only.

     If Congress appropriates funds for these new award categories, NIST
expects to have criteria available by December 1997, and health care and
education organizations could submit applications for the first awards
in 1998.

     The education and health care sectors have expressed clear interest
in establishing Baldrige quality award programs for these communities.
NIST has been working with these two communities for several years to
establish award programs. In 1995, NIST conducted a successful pilot
award program to determine the interest and readiness of health care and
education organizations in participating in a Baldrige Award program.
Forty-six health care and 19 education organizations submitted
applications for the pilot. In conjunction with the pilot, NIST
distributed more than 30,000 copies of the education and health care
criteria modeled after the criteria for the business award. Federal
funding was not available in 1996 or 1997 to continue the pilots or to
establish award categories.

      These new award programs could help education and health care
organizations improve performance, facilitate communication and sharing
of best practices, and foster partnerships involving schools,
businesses, health care organizations, human services agencies and
others," said Harry Hertz, director of the Baldrige National Quality
Program at NIST. "Health care, education, business and government
leaders are concerned about the costs to the economy of health care and
education as well as the need for improved quality of services.
Increasingly, these problems are affecting our country's economic
development and competitiveness," said Hertz. "The performance
excellence concepts embodied in the Baldrige Award criteria are being
seen as a way to help meet these challenges," he said.

     The FY 1998 budget request also includes $3 million for the
existing Baldrige Quality Award for businesses.

     The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award was established by
Congress in 1987 to enhance U.S. competitiveness by promoting quality
awareness, recognizing quality achievements of U.S. companies and
publicizing successful performance strategies. The award is not given
for specific products or services. Since 1988, 28 companies have won the
award.

     A non-regulatory agency of the Commerce Department's Technology
Administration, NIST promotes U.S. economic growth by working with
industry to develop and apply technology, measurements and standards.
NIST was selected by Congress to design and manage the award program
because of its role in helping U.S. companies compete, its
world-renowned expertise in quality control and assurance, and its
reputation as an impartial third party.

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