What Is Meaningful Use?

Many of you from the health care sector may think at first glance that this column deals with meaningful use of electronic health records. That is not the case. This month I am exploring the concept of meaningful use in regard to the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. My thoughts on this topic were triggered by two recent experiences. The first was musing about the 2.5 million Web page views of the Baldrige Criteria in the last 12 months and thinking about what constitutes a brief visit versus a meaningful use of the Criteria booklet. The second experience was a recent conversation I had with someone who was feeling guilty about doing “stealth Baldrige.” What he meant was that he was implementing the Baldrige Criteria as a guide for his own performance as a senior leader. I responded that his application of the Criteria to his performance was great, and, if he is getting value from this use, it is not at all stealthy in my mind. The upshot of these two experiences was some further thinking on my part about how many different ways an organization or one of its leaders might make “meaningful use” of the Baldrige Criteria booklet.

Continue reading....