The Chickasaw Nation Department of Health (CNDH) has earned the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige Award for Quality and Performance Excellence.
“We are extremely blessed to have the dedicated employees and leadership of the Chickasaw Nation Department of Health working every day in service of the Chickasaw people and other First American patients,” said Chickasaw Nation Governor Bill Anoatubby. “I congratulate them on receiving this prestigious Baldrige Award. Since first compacting to provide our own health services 30 years ago, our employees have committed themselves to excellent and convenient care for our patients. We will continue to strive for improved health outcomes for First Americans.”
Chickasaw Nation Secretary of Health Dr. Charles Grim said achieving this distinction reflects a longstanding visionary commitment to ensuring all First Americans have access to high-quality and safe health care.
“Being a recipient of the Malcolm Baldrige Award is proof that our culture of excellence is not just a goal, it is who we are,” Grim said.
“Each day, our health care professionals and staff all deliver safe, quality care and aspire to make a meaningful impact in the lives of our customers. They are driven by excellence and never settle for anything less. It is so good to see them recognized on a national stage for the work they do for our people,” he said.
“It is a great accomplishment, and we are both excited and humbled to be one of the 2024 Malcolm Baldrige Award winners.”
Grim said Chickasaw Nation Governor Bill Anoatubby laid the foundation and leadership for making the achievement possible.
“We must thank Governor Anoatubby for leading the way. It is under his dedicated and insightful leadership that the Chickasaw Nation Department of Health has earned this distinction. This achievement reflects his longstanding visionary commitment to ensuring that all First Americans have access to high-quality and safe health care. We feel honored to be a part of that vision.”
The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award is the nation’s only presidential award for performance excellence. It falls under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
“2024 has been an incredible year for the Chickasaw Nation Department of Health,” said Chickasaw Nation Under Secretary of Medical Staff and Quality, Chief Medical Officer and Chief Quality Officer Dr. John Krueger. “We received notice from the Department of Commerce in October that we were one of five organizations this year to be awarded the Malcolm Baldrige Performance Excellence award. The Malcolm Baldrige Performance Excellence award is one of the most prestigious honors an organization in any industry can receive. Winning this award, recognizes not only our leadership, innovation and commitment to performance excellence and quality but most importantly, it recognizes the heart and soul of the Chickasaw Nation Department of health organization – our dedicated employees. It is the unwavering commitment to our mission and vision that makes us stand out on this national stage.”
Grim said seeking the Malcolm Baldrige award is a multilevel step application process that requires an organization’s intentional focus and dedication to performance excellence and quality in areas such as customer experience, workforce strength, operational and financial sustainability, organizational culture, and clear strategy for growth.
He said this nationally recognized process allows organizations to identify best evidence-based practices and recognize and address areas of improvement.
For CNDH, the process that started the Malcom Baldrige Performance Excellence journey began at the state level with an application for the Oklahoma Quality Foundation award (OQF). CNDH submitted the application for the OQF award in 2019 and was awarded the top-level state award in 2021.
Winning the top state award made CNDH eligible to embark on the prestigious, nationally known Malcolm Baldrige Award for Quality and Performance Excellence.
Grim said the application process relies heavily on trusted performance data and a strong collaboration of all CNDH leaders and staff.
The CNDH Malcolm Baldrige application was submitted in April 2024. In July 2024, CNDH became one of nine organizations across all United States industries to receive an on-site visit from a panel of Malcolm Baldrige judges. This panel interviewed leaders and staff regarding topics of mission, vision, services, workforce and strategy.
“In October, I received a call from U.S. Department of Commerce, sharing the good news that CNDH had won the Malcolm Baldrige award. CNDH was honored to be one of only five awardees named in 2024,” Grim said.
NIST representatives said CNDH had demonstrated organizational resilience and “show long-term success through favorable performance levels and trends in comparison to competitors and appropriate benchmarks and relevant metrics” over a five-year period. This long-term resilience was evident in other outside accolades such as CNDH’s five-star performance on the CMS Hospital Compare Program and other notable benchmarked quality programs.
“The 2024 Baldrige Award recipients are role-model organizations that are helping us address some of our nation’s most critical needs, and they demonstrate the resilient spirit of the American people,” U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said in a press release.
“Each awardee demonstrates how the Baldrige process makes it possible for any type of organization to achieve excellence on behalf of the people and communities they serve,” Raimondo said.
“Our dedicated commitment to excellence included process adjustments and modifications to support the journey to being a world-class leader in health care. They included intentional efforts toward improving key performance indicators, creating a robust Workforce Support Division, increasing focus on population health and engagement, expanding our Patient Experience Division, hiring a chief quality officer and many other service enhancements,” Grim said.
“The 2024 Baldrige criteria focused on leadership and governance, strategy, operations, operational continuity, workforce, customers and markets, community engagement, and finance,” he said.
Grim said CNDH being recognized as a Baldrige award recipient is based on the Chickasaw Nation’s entire health network and its total workforce of 2,200.
“The award application and win include all CNDH hospital, clinic, public health and nutrition services teams. CNDH included all teams in the application narrative and performance results focusing on results for innovation, transformation and agility in the areas of leadership, customer experience, workforce engagement, operations, strategy, and measures and performance results.
“This includes all geographical clinic locations in Ada, Ardmore, Purcell and Tishomingo as well as, our nutrition, WIC and Office of Environmental Health sites.”
Grim said the excellent rating CNDH received was not based on one year, but multiple years of top-level performance.
“Part of Baldrige performance excellence is resilience. Can you show processes and results over time,” he said.
In that time frame, Grim said CNDH has also implemented many quality improvements to include things such as: engineering systematic approaches, implementing robust quality improvement systems, expanding its medical staff leadership, the nursing education team, adding a simulation training center, increasing its residency programs and benefiting from enhanced staff feedback and action taken following listening sessions.
He said achieving the Baldrige Award distinction was a combined effort of all employees.
“This level of excellence does not just happen overnight,” Grim said. “It is the product of countless hours, unwavering dedication and a relentless pursuit of continuous improvement. From the front lines of patient/customer care to the teams supporting behind the scenes, every Chickasaw Nation Department of Health employee plays a critical role in making us who we are.
“I thank each of them for everything they do to make this organization extraordinary.
“The Chickasaw Nation Department of Health is a special place with hardworking people, serving and caring for Chickasaw and other First American families. And while the Malcolm Baldrige Award celebrates our dedication to providing top-rated health care, it also challenges us to keep pushing forward, to continue raising the bar and to set even greater standards for excellence.
“I am excited about what the future holds for our patients and people,” Grim said.