The impact of Malcolm Baldrige national quality award (MBNQA) framework components and firm’s performance: case of private healthcare sector in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of MBNQA (Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award) framework components on firm’s performance of SriLankan private healthcare sector. MBNQA framework which was established in 1987 and it was viewed as an advantageous way for categorizing the elements of quality. Significant number of studies examined the usefulness of the MBNQA criteria and found that MBNQA criteria exceeded the users’ expectations and it was used as source of information to accomplish business excellence. Currently there are newly established Baldrige Healthcare Criteria for performance excellence which has been specially tailored for the healthcare providers. Moreover SLNQA (SriLanka National Quality Award) was established in the year 1995 as an annual award to recognize organizations in Sri Lanka for performance excellence and quality achievement and this award is based on the Malcolm Baldridge Quality Award of USA. Hence for this reason combined with the universality of such award this study adopted MBNQA framework to measure the performance of healthcare sector in SriLanka. The main objectives of this study are to assess the extent of which MBNQA framework components have been implemented in SriLankan private hospitals and to identify which of these MBNQA framework components are associated in improving the performance of hospitals. This study included a total of eight healthcare service providers which comprised some of the leading healthcare providers in Colombo. The findings revealed that MBNQA framework implementations are linked with improved performance in healthcare sector in the country. Further, healthcare firms in Sri Lanka who expect to implement MBNQA framework to improve their performance should mainly focus on MBNQA framework components which encompasses focusing on operations, workforce and measurement, analysis and knowledge management.