Quick Guide of Currently Available Materials

If you need material or tools that you don't find on this list, let us know, and we will make it available to you or let you know when it will be posted here. Additional documents and resources will be added to this list as they become available.

Tools for Independent Evaluations

2008 Independent Evaluation Worksheets
These worksheets are our new format for observations that you make during independent review, which will eventually serve as the raw materials for your team's comments at consensus. Let us and/or your Team Leader know if you have any questions about how to use them.

Expected Results Matrix
Examiners can use this document out of the box or adapt it to their own tastes to track significant results to look for in Category 7 and elsewhere. The expected results matrix is not a WFA deliverable, but your Team Leader may require you to use it.

The Poindexter-Burns Inventory
An optional tool to help track the correspondence between Criteria Items and core values, key factors, key themes, and expected results.

Consensus Related Documents

Consensus Item Workbooks
Use this workbook to draft and revise your comments during comment development and working towards your consensus meeting. This workbook includes one comment worksheet and two scoring grids—one for process Items and the other for results (Category 7). Cut, copy, and paste to create the configuration of comment worksheets and corresponding scoring grids that you need.

Key Themes Worksheet
This worksheet captures broader feedback from the Examiner team which becomes the Executive Summary in the final feedback report. Key themes address a central requirement of the Criteria, are common to more than one Category (cross-cutting), are especially significant in light of the applicant organization's key factors, and/or address a Core Value of the Criteria.

Guidance for Effective Comment Writing
This document includes comment guidelines, descriptions of A/D/L/I and Le/T/C/Li, and examples of improving written comments for process and results Items.

Consensus Process Flowchart
A flowchart showing all the steps Examiners will take between the end of independent review and the end of the consensus process.

The Bessemer Matrix
A spreadsheet that tracks an Examiner team's score from independent evaluation to final review by the Panel of Judges. Each Team Leader should complete upload this spreadsheet to the WFA Depot after consensus review and site visit review.

Red/Yellow/Green Consensus System
This handout is designed to be folded and secured as a three-sided sign. During discussion on above-the-line/below-the-line comments or scoring, each Examiner displays the side representing his or her level of agreement with the Category Leader's current proposed comments or score. Team members who disagree with the current team consensus have specific responsibilities to suggest alternative solutions.

Site Visit Documents and Tools

Site Visit Manual for Examiner Teams
A manual with information and tips for preparing for and conducting a site visit as a Team Leader or a member of an Examiner site visit team. Another guide is available to help applicant organizations prepare for 2008 site visits.

Sample Site Visit Agenda
This sample agenda is also part of the Site Visit Manual.

Site Visit Strategy Worksheets
In a change in process for 2008, site visit teams will not complete site visit issue (SVI) worksheets, but rather will plan their approach to addressing SVIs through site visit strategy worksheets for both process and results Items.

Site Visit Scorebooks
This document, including worksheets for key factors, key themes, the highest ranking official interview, process Items, and results Items, is the deliverable product after the site visit..

Site Visit Interview Tips
An supplementary guide with general and specific suggestions to conducting successful formal and walkaround site visit interviews. This document is heavily indebted to feedback provided by a Baldrige Judge and is also included as part of the site visit guides for Team Leaders and Examiners.

Miscellaneous Documents and Tools

Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence
The 2007 Criteria can be downloaded for Business, Education, or Health Care.

Scoring Calibration Guides
These scoring calibration guides were designed by Dr. Mark Blazey for the Business/Nonprofit, Education, and Health Care Criteria.

Results Terminology Calibration
(Few-Some-Many-Most)
You can download visual references to the standard definitions of few (5% to 15%), some (16% to 30%), many (31% to 50%), most (51% to 80%), and nearly all (80% to less than 100%) for purposes of results Item scoring in PowerPoint (.ppt) or Word (.doc) format.

Selected Slides from Examiner Training
From Mark Blazey's Examiner training slides, you can download his Criteria models in color, summaries of the Criteria Items, color-coded strength and OFI comments, or all three in one file (.ppt)

How to Use the WFA Depot
Documentation (written on January 24, 2008) detailing how you can use the WFA Depot to share and provide feedback on documents related to your team's feedback. This document is being continuously improved based on your feedback and questions, so please let us know if you don't find what you need.

Examiner Biography Form
This form tells your Team Leader about your experience related to the skills you’ll be employing as a WFA Examiner, and it will be shared with your other team members during the comment development and virtual consensus phase of review. A sample biography is also provided.

Disclosure of Conflict of Interest
All Examiners are required to return a disclosure of organizational relationships to the WFA office in order to ensure no conflict of interest (or the appearance thereof) on Examiner teams. You can download the disclosure form here.

Expense-Related Documents
Reimbursement guidelines and a reimbursement form for expenses incurred during the review process. Please be sure to read the guidelines and ask for clarification if necessary before incurring expenses to make sure WFA is able to cover them.

WFA Scoring Bands and Relationship to Recognition Levels
An overall description of each scoring band, the corresponding point ranges, and the correspondence to the WFA recognition levels of Commitment (band 1), Proficiency (bands 2 and 3), Mastery (bands 4 and 5), and Excellence (bands 6, 7, and 8).

Feedback Report Template
This document serves as a template for Examiner teams' final feedback.

Peer and Team Review Forms
Updated forms and instructions for 2008 will be posted by March 10.

Common Quality Indicators for Healthcare Organizations
Teams reviewing health care organizations can expect specific results to be reported. Agencies such as the Institute of Medicine (IOM), the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have derived lists of critical quality measures that are fairly standard in the industry. IHI's 100,000 Lives Program has been adopted by over 3100 hospitals nationwide and features significant alignment with core measures of other improvement organizations. A list of measures and other aligned items of the 100,000 Lives campaign is available here.

IHI's latest initiative is called the 5 Million Lives Campaign, which runs from December 2006 to December 2008. The initiative includes a total of twelve initiatives, six of which have just been introduced in new campaign. Because of the timing of the WFA application cycle, the new initiatives are unlikely to be reflected in hospital applications until our 2008 cycle.

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) is an independent not-for-profit organization that evaluates and accredits nearly 15,000 health care organizations and programs throughout the country. JCAHO accreditation is critical for a variety of reasons, including compliance with Medicare and Medicaid regulations. The organization publishes a yearly list of national patient safety goals for hospitals that can be found here, and there's a good chance that hospitals will use these measures in their benchmarking processes. Regulatory requirements for all hospitals participating in either JCAHO or Medicare can be found here.