ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the National Bureau of Standards’ Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence, relating the context in which the publication appeared, its impact on science, technology, and the general public, and brief details about the lives and work of the author. Starting in 1998, the Baldrige Award was opened to health care and education organizations. In order to accommodate to these communities, while supporting cross-sector cooperation, the business Criteria were adapted and published for health care and education organizations. The adaptation of the Criteria to health care and education is largely a translation of the requirements language and basic concepts of business excellence to parallel requirements in health care and education excellence. Although the Baldrige Award and the Award recipients are the very visible centerpiece of US quality improvement, a broader national quality program has evolved around the Award and the Criteria.
