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Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Ceremony
April 23, 2008

Prepared remarks by
Javon R. Bea
President and CEO
Mercy Health System

Secretary Gutierrez, Distinguished Guests, Mercy Health System Partners and our Malcolm Baldrige Colleagues:

It is an honor and a privilege to accept this award on behalf of Mercy Health System and our 4,000 outstanding employee and physician partners.

Today is a milestone that will live forever in our memories. It is the culmination of almost 20 years of hard work.

In 1989, Mercy was a struggling stand-alone hospital serving one community. Today, Mercy is unique. It is a top-ranked integrated health system in the United States with a full range of services offered through 64 medical facilities serving 24 communities in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois.

With our growth comes great responsibility. Responsibility to meet and exceed the needs of over 1 million patients who depend on us for some of the most intimate and lifesaving services that modern medicine has to offer.

We met this challenge by developing a systematic and sophisticated approach to quality and organizational excellence that supports our entire integrated system.

Mercy Health System represents vision, passion, determination, drive and results founded on a servant-leadership model and supported by our Four Pillars of Excellence: Quality, Service, Partnering and Cost.

We accept no less than the best from our talented employee and physician partners, who have so much to give … and do so generously.

And, we rely on a strong commitment to community to express our gratitude to the residents of the 24 communities that support our work.

I am humbled to be here in the company of so many visionary leaders.

The Malcolm Baldrige Award celebrates what is best about this country and the organizations that make it strong. Baldrige calls organizations to stretch beyond established comfort zones and develop skills crucial to service of the best kind.

It is my hope that more health care organizations will embark on the Baldrige journey of excellence.

We will use this opportunity to reach out to others in the healthcare industry and share our knowledge.

Quality is indeed a journey that requires commitment and going above the norm. We must never think we have reached the ultimate or have arrived. Every day, every month, every year, we can and should be getting better at what we do.

We hope to inspire others to reach higher as they chart their own paths to excellence. This is the heart of the Baldrige journey.

My deepest thanks go out once again –

  • To the 4,000 extraordinary Mercy partners for your remarkable work;
  • To the esteemed honorees gathered here today;
  • To President Bush, whom I had the honor of meeting in the Oval Office today; and
  • To the entire Baldrige organization and to the National Institute of Standards and Technology for providing us with this unique opportunity to learn and, now, to celebrate.

Secretary Gutierrez, thank you for this tremendous honor.

News release on the ceremony for the 2007 Baldrige winners

Posted: 04/23/08
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