Baldrige Foundation Announces Newest Mac Baldrige Society Member: Mid-America Transplant

Organ Procurement Organization Becomes Lifetime Trustee of Baldrige Institute

WASHINGTON, June 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Mid-America Transplant, a leader in organ and tissue procurement for transplantation located in St. Louis, Missouri, became the eighth and newest member of the Mac Baldrige Society, the Trustees of the Baldrige Foundation's Institute for Performance Excellence.

"The Foundation established the Institute for Performance Excellence in June 2020," said Al Faber, President and CEO of the Baldrige Foundation, "to be a thought leader on performance excellence, leadership, and management."

"The Mac Baldrige Society, limited to 20 elite members," continued Faber, "are the Trustees of the Institute which, by their commitment, demonstrate they and their organizations recognize the importance of the Baldrige Foundation's mission: to promote organizational performance excellence in the United States and throughout the world by supporting the Baldrige Program."

Mid-America Transplant is a private, nonprofit organ procurement organization and an eye and tissue bank serving 84 counties in three states (Missouri, Illinois, and Arkansas), with a combined population of 4.7 million. Exemplifying its mission, "we save lives through excellence in organ and tissue donation," Mid-America Transplant collaborates with its partner hospitals to procure donated organs and tissues and then provide them to transplant centers and tissue processors. Mid-America Transplant has an annual gross revenue of approximately $80 million and a workforce of about two hundred employees.

Mid-America Transplant has been integrating the Baldrige criteria into its day-to-day operations for nearly two decades. "Mid-America Transplant began our Baldrige journey in 2003 as a way to continuously improve how we operate, so we could save more lives through organ and tissue donation," said Diane Brockmeier, President and CEO at Mid-America Transplant. "Since then, the tenets of quality and performance improvement have become the Mid-America Transplant way, helping us set donation records year after year and giving more people a second chance at life."

Since adopting the Baldrige Excellence Framework with the goal of saving more lives, Mid-America has continuously improved processes and outcomes to increase the number of lifesaving organs transplanted by 167 percent and increase the impact of tissue donation by 385 percent.

Mid-America Transplant has been a champion for Baldrige, including having several executives serve on the Board of Examiners for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, and Diane Brockmeier has also served on the Baldrige Foundation Board of Directors. In addition, Mid-America Transplant has helped several other organ procurement organizations adopt the Baldrige framework. And now, Ms. Brockmeier continued, "We are honored to continue to champion the framework as a member of the Mac Baldrige Society."

"The Institute Trustees," said Faber, "are making a commitment to preserve and promote the Baldrige Framework and to help ensure that Baldrige remains relevant for future generations of organizations across all sectors of the economy. We are grateful for their support."

For more information, contact: Mark Wayda, 614-600-0432 or at [email protected].

The Baldrige Foundation was created as the private partner to the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program in 1988. Its mission is to ensure the long-term financial viability of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program and to support organizational performance excellence throughout the U.S. and the world. The Baldrige Program located at NIST within the U.S. Department of Commerce, is a separate entity and is solely responsible for managing and administering the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. For more information on the Baldrige Award process please visit: https://www.nist.gov/baldrige/baldrige-award.

SOURCE Malcolm Baldrige Foundation