P Organizational Profile 3

Health Care Criteria for Performance Excellence

Begin with the Organizational Profile

The Organizational Profile is the most appropriate starting point for self-assessment and for writing an application. It is 

critically important for the following reasons: 

• You can use it as an initial self-assessment. If you identify topics for which conflicting, little, or no information is

available, use these topics for action planning.

• It sets the context for understanding your organization and how it operates, and allows you to address unique

aspects of your organization in your responses to the Baldrige Health Care Criteria questions in categories 1–7. Your

responses to all other questions in the Criteria should relate to the organizational context you describe in this profile.

• It helps you identify gaps in key information about your organization and focus on key performance requirements

and results.

• The Organizational Profile is an invaluable tool for new and seasoned employees to fully understand your

organization.

P Organizational Profile

The Organizational Profile is a snapshot of your organization and its strategic environment.

P.1 Organizational Description: What are your key organizational characteristics?

a. Organizational Environment

(1) Health Care Service Offerings What are your main health care service offerings? What is the relati

importance (including percentage of revenue/budget) of each to your success? What are the delivery methods for

your health care services?

(2) Mission, Vision, Values, and Culture What are your mission, vision, and values? What are the de

characteristics of your organizational culture? What are your organization’s core competencies, and what is

their relationship to your mission and vision?

(3) Workforce Profile What is your workforce profile? What are your workforce or employee group

and segments and the key engagement drivers for each? What key changes are you experiencing in your

workforce capability, capacity, and composition?

(4) Assets What are your major assets, such as facilities, equipment, technologies, and intellectual property?

(5) Regulatory Environment What are your key applicable regulations, and accreditation, certification, or registration requirements?

b. Organizational Relationships

(1) Organizational Structure What are your organizational leadership and governance structures? What are the

key components of your organization’s leadership system? What are the reporting relationships among your

governance system, senior leaders, and parent organization, as appropriate?

(2) Patients, Other Customers, and Stakeholders What are your key market segments, patient and 

customer groups, and stakeholder groups, as appropriate? What are their key requirements and expectations

for your health care services, patient and other customer support services, and operations, including any

differences among the groups?

(3) Suppliers, Partners, and Collaborators What are your key types of suppliers, partners, a

collaborators? What role do they play in producing and delivering your key health care services and

patient and other customer support services? What role do they play in contributing and implementing

innovations in your organization? What are your key supply-network requirements?

Terms in small caps are defined in the Glossary of Key Terms (pages 48–56).
4 2023–2024 Baldrige Excellence Framework

Notes

P.1a(1). How you deliver services to your patients or other 

customers might be direct or indirect, or through contractors, collaborators, partners, or third-party vendors.

P.1a(2). Your values are part of your organization’s culture. 

Other characteristics of your culture include shared beliefs, 

norms, and values that contribute to the uniqueness of the 

environment within your organization.

P.1a(2). If your organization has a stated purpose as well 

as a mission, you should include it in your response here 

and as appropriate in the process categories. Some organizations define a mission and a purpose, and some use the 

terms interchangeably. Purpose refers to the fundamental 

reason that the organization exists. 

P.1a(3). As applicable, your workforce profile should 

include the location of your workforce, your organized 

bargaining units (i.e., union representation), and the special 

health and safety requirements of the workforce. Your 

workforce profile should specify any workforce groups 

(including employed and independent physicians) the 

organization has identified for segmenting data. Organizations that also rely on volunteers and/or temporary staff 

members to accomplish core work (producing output that 

is necessary and/or customer-facing) should include these 

groups as part of their workforce. Workforce or employee 

groups and segments might be based on type of employment or contract-reporting relationship, location (including 

remote work), work shift/tour of duty, work environment, 

use of flexible work policies, or other factors. Current and 

anticipated changes impacting your workforce members 

might relate to scheduling, location, and their requirements 

and expectations. 

P.1a(3), P.1b(2), P.1b(3). Referring and other providers 

(e.g., physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners) are part of the workforce if they are credentialed 

at the health care organization, but otherwise, they 

are considered partners. If providers are involved in a 

referral, they are considered suppliers of patients to your 

organization. In most cases, providers are not considered 

customers unless they are users of your health care 

services. Third-party payors may be considered customers 

or partners. Insurers are considered partners.

P.1a(5). Regulations and requirements include any applicable occupational health and safety regulations; industry 

standards; and environmental, financial, and product 

regulations. Industry standards might include industrywide 

codes of conduct and policy guidance. Depending on 

the regions and context in which you operate, special 

financial covenants, standards regarding relationships with 

physicians or other referral sources, and environmental 

regulations may apply.

P.1b(1). The Organizational Profile asks for the what of 

your leadership system. Questions in categories 1 and 5 

ask how the system functions.

P.1b(2). Patients (customers) are the direct recipients of 

the health care services you provide; your organization 

may use another term for patient, such as client, resident, 

consumer, or member. Other customers may include those 

who pay for your services, such as patients’ families. 

Stakeholders might include health departments, Offices of 

Emergency Management, universities, etc., in your service 

area.

P.1b(2). Patient and other customer groups might be based 

on common requirements and expectations, behaviors, 

preferences, or profiles. Within a group, there may be segments based on differences, commonalities, or both. You 

might subdivide your market segments or customer groups 

based on health care service lines or features, service delivery modes, payors, volume, geography, or other defining 

factors.

P.1b(2). There may be different patient groups (segments; 

e.g., inpatient, outpatient, emergency care, urgent care, 

post-acute care, hospice) in an integrated delivery network 

or continuum of care with different group characteristics 

or needs and expectations.

P.1b(2). Patient, other customer, stakeholder, and 

operational requirements and expectations will drive your 

organization’s sensitivity to the risk of service, support, 

and supply-network interruptions, including those due to 

natural disasters and other emergencies.

P.1b(3). Your supply network consists of the external 

entities involved in producing and delivering your health 

care services to your patients and other customers and 

offering post-care support. For some organizations, these 

entities form a chain, in which one entity directly supplies 

another. Increasingly, however, these entities are interlinked 

and exist in interdependent rather than linear relationships. 

The Health Care Criteria use the term supply network to 

emphasize the interdependencies among organizations and 

their suppliers. The term supply network represents an 

evolution and maturity in supply-chain management.

For additional guidance on this item, see the Health Care 

Criteria Commentary.
P Organizational Profile 5

P.2 Organizational Situation: What is your organization’s strategic situation?

a. Competitive Environment

(1) Competitive Position What are your size, share, and growth in the health care industry or the markets you 

serve? How many and what types of competitors do you have? What differentiates you from them? 

(2) Competitiveness Changes What key changes, if any, are affecting your competitive situation, including 

changes that create opportunities for collaboration and innovation, as appropriate? 

(3) Comparative Data What key sources of comparative and competitive data are available from within the health 

care industry? What key sources of comparative data are available from outside the health care industry? What 

limitations, if any, affect your ability to obtain or use these data?

b. Strategic Context

What are your key strategic challenges, threats, advantages, and opportunities?

c. Performance Improvement Sy

What is your overall system for performance improvement? What key tools and methods are used as part of this 

system? 

Terms in small caps are defined in the Glossary of Key Terms (pages 48–56).

Notes

P.2b. Strategic challenges, threats, advantages, and opportunities might be in the areas of business, operations, societal 

contributions, and workforce. They might relate to health 

care services or service features; quality and outcomes; 

finances; organizational structure and culture; emerging 

technology; digital integration; data and information; security and cybersecurity; emerging competitors; organizational 

resilience and risk management; changing stakeholder 

requirements and expectations; workforce capability or 

capacity; brand recognition and reputation; your supply 

network; diversity, equity, and inclusion; the upgrade and 

maintenance of facilities; and the health care industry.

P.2c. Excellence is not possible without robust evaluation and improvement of key processes, systems, and 

organizational results. The Baldrige Scoring System (pages 

30–36) uses performance improvement through learning 

and integration as a factor in assessing the maturity of 

organizational approaches and their deployment. This 

question is intended to set an overall context for your 

approach to performance improvement. The system you 

use should be related to your organization’s needs and 

compatible with your organization’s capabilities, capacity, 

and culture. Specific tools and methods that might be utilized as part of the system include, for example, the PDCA 

methodology, ISO standards, a Lean Enterprise System, 

and the Six Sigma methodology, among others.

For additional guidance on this item, see the Health Care 

Criteria Commentary.