Methodist Gets Lincoln Foundation Gold Award for Excellence

11/1/2006

The Lincoln Foundation for Performance Excellence has awarded Methodist Medical Center the Gold Award for Achievement of Excellence. Methodist is the only organization to receive a Gold Excellence Award for 2006 and is the only Gold Award recipient since 2003 and one of six in the Foundation's eleven year history.

The Lincoln Foundation presents a three-tiered award process based on the Criteria for Performance Excellence of the Baldrige National Quality Program. The Gold tier is for role model organizations that have demonstrated through their practices and achievements, the organizational capacity to continuously evaluate and improve processes based on established customer requirements.

Methodist President and CEO Michael Bryant said, "We have benefited greatly and more importantly have learned from the Lincoln Foundation for Performance Excellence experience over the last two years. I am proud our organization listened very carefully to the Lincoln Feedback team and as a consequence we have learned more about ourselves and have implemented changes to make us better. Without question, Methodist is a lot better organization today as a result of the experience of the Lincoln Foundation for Performance Excellence."

For 2006 there are 6 recipients of the Lincoln Silver Award for Progress Towards Excellence for demonstrating sound and notable continuous improvement processes. The organizations are as follows: Centegra Health Systems-Woodstock; Decatur Memorial Hospital-Decatur; Delta Dental of Illinois-Lisle; Illinois Division of Child Support Enforcement, Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services-Springfield; Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital-Wheaton; ZF Sales and Service NA, LLC-Vernon Hills.

Three additional Illinois organizations have been awarded the 2006 Lincoln Bronze Award for Commitment to Excellence for their earnest efforts to adopt and apply continuous improvement principles. These organizations include: Advanced Technology Service Inc-Peoria; Serenity Packaging Corp.-St. Charles; The Carle Foundation-Urbana.

"This year we are recognizing a group of organizations that are leading the way in improving healthcare, industry, and government," says Paul G. Kuchuris Jr., President and CEO of the Lincoln Foundation. "We are proud to honor them and to be a part of their success because they represent people who are committed to continuously improving their organizations and developing Communities of Excellence."

The award will be formally presented at the Lincoln Foundation for Performance Excellence Recognition Ceremony on December 6, 2006, in Naperville, Illinois.

The Lincoln Foundation for Performance Excellence is a not-for-profit organization backed by both private and public funding that helps Illinois organizations continuously improve their performance by encouraging, developing, and highlighting excellence among all five sections of the economy: industry, service, health care, education, and government. Each year a select Lincoln Board of Examiners review and assess award applications in seven areas (leadership, strategic planning, customer and market focus, information and analysis, human resource focus, process management and results) and a Panel of Judges determine which applicants have earned recognition.