National Institute of Standards and Technology  U.S. Department of Commerce 

Baldrige National Quality Program

2009

Award Recipient

Veterans Affairs Cooperative 

Studies Program Clinical Research 

Pharmacy Coordinating Center 

The Veterans Affairs Cooperative Studies Program 

(VACSP) Clinical Research Pharmacy Coordinating Center 

(the Center) is a federal government organization that 

supports multicenter clinical trials targeting current health 

issues for America’s veterans. Located in Albuquerque, New 

Mexico, the Center focuses on the pharmaceutical, safety, 

and regulatory aspects related to designing and implementing 

clinical trials conducted worldwide by the VACSP and other 

federal agencies and industries. The Center manufactures, 

packages, stores, labels, distributes, and tracks clinical trial 

materials (drugs and devices), and monitors patient safety. 

At any one time, the Center’s 112 employees provide 

products and services for approximately 70 clinical trials, 

which last from six months to more than a decade. Over 

the past three years, the Center’s work benefited more than 

90,000 patients per year at approximately 1,600 sites using 

nearly 300 drugs. 

With more than 75 percent of its extramural (nonVA) business coming from repeat customers, the Center 

has demonstrated its ability to consistently, rapidly, and 

effectively meet the needs of its diverse clientele. 

Excellence for the Government 

and Beyond

 While the Center focuses its efforts on improving 

the health of U.S. veterans, it also strives to be a leader 

and innovator in the broader community of organizations 

conducting pharmaceutical clinical trials worldwide. 

Highlights 

• The Center’s financial results demonstrate its ability to

maintain its competitive market position. Its budget from

new studies grew 143 percent from 2002 to 2008, compared

to 58 percent for the VA over the same period.

• The Center’s 2008 productivity of $221,000 per full-time

employee compared favorably to eight top competitors,

with the highest competitor’s performance at approximately

$195,000.

• Seventy-five percent of the Center’s customer relationships

exceed 10 years. The majority of extramural funding is from

repeat business, which achieved its highest level of $11

million in 2008.

• Organizational culture and processes that embrace

regulatory, quality, and performance-excellence

management systems enhance the Center’s capabilities.

As the first VA facility registered with the International

Organization for Standardization (ISO), the Center serves

as a leader within the VACSP.

• Low turnover, a supportive learning environment,

and leadership effectiveness are factors in the Center’s

recognition as a Federal Executive Board Employer of

Choice for 2008 and 2009, and a top 10 ranking in the

“New Mexico Best Places to Work for 2009.”

The Center has five core values—leadership, customer 

service, safety, teamwork, and continuous learning—that 

support goals and help yield outstanding performance results, 

including the following examples: 

• The Center’s financial results demonstrate its success

and sustainability; its revenues grew 143 percent from 

2002 to 2008, compared to 58 percent for the VA over 

the same period. 

• The Center’s 2008 productivity of $221,000 in revenue

per full-time employee compares favorably to eight top 

competitors, with the highest competitor’s performance at 

approximately $195,000. 

• 75 percent of the Center’s customer relationships exceed

10 years. The majority of extramural (federal and industry) 

funding is from repeat business, achieving its highest level of 

$11 million in 2008. 

• Since 2001, zero quality defects in the Center’s

pharmaceuticals have been reported by customers for all but 

one of those years. 

Such success stems from an agile, learning organization 

that supports sustainability through several team approaches: 

a fully deployed matrix-management system, an interlocking-
committee governance structure, and cross-functional 

strategic planning teams. 

The matrix-management system creates teams from 

different functional sections at the outset of each clinical trial. 

With each employee serving as a member of both a functional 

section and a clinical trial team, the matrix organization 

ensures open communication, cooperation, and skill-sharing 

across the entire company. 

The interlocking committee model begins with an inner 

ring representing the highest level of decision making (the 

Center Executive Committee, or CEC) and spreads outward 

to concentric rings representing more focused areas of 

organizational governance. Each committee includes one 

CEC representative to ensure consistent communication 

throughout the Center. Finally, the cross-functional teams 

provide input to the annual strategic planning cycle to help 

ensure customer-driven excellence by exceeding expectations. 

Getting Engaged 

Solid communication also is critical to the Center’s 

ability to consistently provide the highest-quality service 

to and encourage repeat business from the group known as 

“engaged customers.” 

The workforce uses multiple methods to learn from and 

listen to customers, such as feedback from clinical trial studies, 

information from prospective suppliers and customers, and 

the tracking of customer complaints and retained customers. 

Early stage work on each clinical trial relies on “voice-of-thecustomer” input to help the Center ensure that a customer’s 

unique requirements will be met. This focus on open, twoway communication continues throughout the course of the 

trial, with the customer having direct access to the study’s 

senior leader and on-call availability of an expert and tenured 

staff, including a pharmacist, dedicated to the project. 

As a result, customer satisfaction ratings for the Center’s 

efforts are overwhelmingly positive. Average customer ratings 

for overall satisfaction improved from 83 percent “goodexcellent” in 2003 to 100 percent “good-excellent” in 2009. 

With significantly less than 3.4 complaints per million units 

shipped, customer dissatisfaction data have outperformed Six 

Sigma standards since 1999. 

Emphasizing the Workforce

Performance excellence requires an organization to have 

an engaged workforce, as well as engaged customers. To 

keep that concept fresh in the minds of all who work at the 

Center, every employee badge is inscribed with the following 

mantra: “Our commitment to quality is integral to the way we 

conduct our operations, treat our employees, and honor our 

commitments to customers. We reinforce our commitment to 

quality through visionary leadership, employee development, 

continuous improvement, and a systematic focus on safety 

and our customers.” 

The Center sees engagement as the single most 

important criterion for workforce satisfaction. Excellence 

in the workplace, superior customer service, and personal 

involvement in organizational improvement are rewarded 

through the Center’s performance management system 

with visible, tangible benefits, such as time off or cash. Both 

management and peers can use multiple methods to recognize 

a job well done. 

The Center also encourages career and personal 

advancement for its workforce by providing fi nancial and 

other support for education and training. In fact, application 

of formal and informal learning is required for employees to 

be eligible for the organization’s highest performance rating. 

The Center’s ratings for workforce engagement have 

outperformed the Gallup Q12 75th percentile for the 

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services segment 

from 2006 to 2008. For workforce satisfaction, results have 

exceeded Gallup’s overall 75th percentile for four consecutive 

years, from 2005 to 2008.

 Low turnover, a supportive learning environment, and 

leadership effectiveness are factors in the Center’s recognition 

as a Federal Executive Board Employer of Choice for 2008 

and 2009, as well as a top 10 ranking in the “New Mexico Best 

Places to Work for 2009.” 

Ethical Code of the West

Senior leaders at the Center personally promote legal 

and ethical behavior through multiple formal and informal 

systematic approaches, including using Cowboy Ethics: What 

Wall Street Can Learn from the Code of the West (©2004 James 

P. Owen from his book of the same name). This approach

forms the foundation for behavioral expectations for managers

and employees, such as “live each day with courage; take pride

in your work; be tough, but fair; and ride for the brand.”

 In a 2009 employee survey on ethical behavior, the 

Center’s leadership received a rating of 4.6 out of 5, up from 

4.5 in 2007. 

For more information: 

Sandra Mallory 

Communications Specialist 

Department of Veterans Affairs 

Cooperative Studies Program Clinical Research 

Pharmacy Coordinating Center 

Albuquerque VA Medical Center 

2401 Centre Ave. SE 

Albuquerque, NM 87106 

Telephone: (505) 248-3203 

E-mail: baldrige@csp.research.med.va.gov

Web site: https://www.research.va.gov/programs/

csp/abq.cfm