The Baldrige Journey of Feather River Hospital

Published: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 - 10:12

Throughout all levels of the California Awards for Performance Excellence (CAPE), a single organization shines at the gold level—Feather River Hospital—the only recipient of the gold-level Eureka Award for 2008. They are only the second hospital to achieve the gold level since the California Council for Excellence (CCE) began their Baldrige-based award programs in 1992.

On the morning of May 27, 2009, take a trip to Sacramento, California, head over to the Sutter Center for Health Professions at 2700 Gateway Oaks, enter the Aristotle Room, and travel “The Baldrige Journey of Feather River Hospital” with Wayne Ferch, CEO, and Richard Huse, hospital director of quality resource management. Ferch and Huse will share the lessons learned along the way and describe the benefits realized so far.

This unique event is part of the CCE’s “Morning Thunder” program, where after the presentation, attendees can participate in an interactive discussion with the speakers and learn first-hand about proven success strategies and how to integrate them into their own organizations.

Feather River Hospital, a 101-bed facility located in Paradise, California, is no stranger to the CAPE program. They received a silver award in 2006 and a bronze award in 2005 by continuously employing the Health Care Criteria for Performance Excellence from the Baldrige Excellence Framework, which helped to improve processes and performance, measure that improvement, align processes and resources with the needs of patients, employees, and suppliers to realize a plan of action.  

“This is an ongoing process for us,” notes Ferch. “It represents a significant amount of work on the part of our staff to improve processes and achieve results that represent best practice. Our commitment to quality is focused on achieving best-practice results in all our processes, ensuring that our patients receive compassionate, high-quality care.”

The Eureka Award has bronze, silver, gold, and platinum levels in seven categories: large service; small service; education; health care; nonprofit; government; and military. For more information on this event and CAPE, visit www.calexcellence.org. Learn more about Feather River Hospital at www.frhosp.org.

Don’t miss Quality Digest’s video interview with Wayne Ferch coming up next week.

About The Author

Laurel Thoennes @ Quality Digest

Laurel Thoennes is an editor at Quality Digest. She has worked in the media industry for 33 years at newspapers, magazines, and UC Davis—the past 25 years with Quality Digest.